A Game Of Chance
by MrsPuppetEx
Summary: "That's my boot," She announced, mismatched eyes locked onto the hunk of leather- and she wasn't talking about the man, either. "Is it?" He asked, tilting his head as a smirk graced his features. "Answer a couple of questions and I might return it." -How could she have guessed what the Three Fates had in store?- /M for Lemons and Cobra/OCxCobra/Slow-burn/FT owned by Hiro Mashima/
1. Chapter 1

**A/N;** _Okay, so the concept behind this story is kind of complicated and I would like for you guys to give it a shot! I've had this idea bugging me for a week now and I've got about 4 {very long} chapters complete. I say long only because these chapters are ending up nearly twice as long as I usually write, aside from this first chapter._

 _A few things..._

 _First, I know that Cobra is EXTREMELY OOC. This is done on purpose as I am doing a new take on mates {for me}, giving them more of a tender edge when they interact with their mates and Cobra, being a slayer, will not be exempt from this. I'm setting them up as something of a treasure and to be worshiped by their slayer. I PROMISE WE WILL SEE DARK COBRA LATER._

 _Second, I'm making this more of a slow-burn after the initial meeting and whatnot, {slow-burn, again, being a relative term as, if you've read anything I've written, my characters usually end up in the sack pretty much right off the bat}. I wanted to, again, try something different for me as a writer and am very much enjoying how this is turning out._

 _And finally, I would very much appreciate it if you all gave me feedback on this story, even if you want to PM me about it instead of leaving a review. I don't usually ask because I mostly just post stories I write for friends and I on my Archive Discord. { discord . gg / QTvtmY8 } I'm asking this time because I would very much like to know what you guys think about this and whether you would like me to post more here as I'm going to start being more picky on what gets posted to my as opposed to posting incomplete works._

 _I think that's everything, so, enjoy!_

* * *

"Hellia."

The girl with long, black hair looked up curiously at the sound of her name and she grinned broadly, hoping that she was going to be told what she imagined she was about to hear. "Yeah?" She asked, mismatched eyes wide as she looked to her guildmaster.

"Unfortunately, Cameron has been injured, so, I've decided that you'll be replacing him in the Grand Magic Games," The woman with sandy blonde hair announced to the loud groans coming from those gathered in the dirty hall.

Hellia leapt from her chair and pumped her fist into the space above her head, an air of excitement surrounding her small body as she did so. "I'm so ready for this!" She yelled loudly, completely disregarding the continued sounds of dismay from those around her.

"Hellia."

The young woman froze, blue and gold eyes locking back onto the stern guildmaster with curiosity brimming. She'd never been allowed to do anything like this and- even as the adopted daughter of the Master herself- Hellia had never even been allowed to go on a mission that would require her to use magic due to it being pretty… unpredictable?

"Let's make a bet," Her adoptive mother said with a raised brow.

The woman's mega-watt smile made another appearance as she skirted the table, trying to make her way to the chair the Master sat in as quickly as she could. Her feet caught the laces of her boots and she flopped forward, scraping her already raw knees once more and thumping her head on the ground.

Hellia leapt to her feet, rubbing her forehead before she continued on her way. "I'm okay!" She reassured, though most of the guild were still questioning why this clumsy fool would be chosen to try and lead their guild to winning the Grand Magic Games. "What are we betting?" The woman asked curiously, producing a golden thread from thin air and wrapping it around both of their hands as they clasped forearms.

"If you lose even one event," The guildmaster stated, her voice firm as her adopted daughter's eyes clouded with dread and morphed into complete and total heartbreak. "You are no longer welcome in our guild."

A small gasp exited the raven haired woman's lips as the rope clenched around her hand to prevent her from pulling away, there was no backing out now. "And… if I don't?" She asked, her voice tinny and wavering with sadness at such an idea as her being removed from the guild she loved.

"You may have all of my luck," The hard woman replied evenly.

The rope squeezed slightly as Hellia nodded, her eyes going hard and fierce, "It's a bet."

* * *

"What the hell am I supposed to do with a wagon?!" Hellia shouted crossly as she kicked the stupid wooden device with a bootless foot- the other boot having been lost at some point in the day, much to her chagrin. She frowned, knowing her magic was far too low for her to win this battle if she didn't figure this out soon.

The man across the field smirked at her, arms crossed over his well-muscled chest. "Just give it up," The blond suggested. "You can't beat me." Behind the man, many of his guild cheered and held up their hands in the shape of an 'L'.

Hellia's mismatched eyes filled with tears when she turned to see that none of her guild were even watching the battle, all looking away from the field and none attempting to cheer her on. It was in that moment that she realized that even if she did win, she would never be accepted within the guild, would never gain the family she truly wished she'd had. Her whole life had been spent in service to those mages who were now simply disregarding her existence.

She looked up at the counter above her head, the solid number eight blaring in the sunlight and seeming to show her exactly what she should do. She steeled her nerve, summoning her coin once more and held it out between her fingers to show to her opponent. Hellia flipped it around, showing the other side and being sure that the man saw the two sides clearly.

"It appears that Griffin's Claws', Hellia, is going for her signature coin flip one last time!" The announcer said loudly to the cheers of the crowd.

"Heads," Her opponent, Laxus, called out across the field and made Hellia frown slightly when she looked down at her hand that held the coin.

She threw it high into the air, the gold glinting in the sunlight as it turned quickly. Catching the coin expertly, the crowd went deathly silent in those seconds as the tension in the arena grew. Hellia placed the gold disk on the back of her hand, covered with the opposite palm as she took a deep breath.

Her hand raised, mismatched eyes tilting down for a brief moment. "Heads." A dark mist surrounded her body and obscured the woman from view, her blood-curdling screams echoing through the silenced crowd for several long minutes. On the eighth minute, the mist cleared and she lay on the ground, wheezing for breath as blood seeped from her wounds.

The crowd roared as Laxus was declared the winner, none paying much mind to the woman as she struggled to her feet to walk off of the field, dragging the wagon with her. The guildmark on the top of her thigh faded as she hobbled into the hall, tears streaming down her face when she saw the blank skin that showed there.

Hellia wandered aimlessly as she heard cheers that accompanied the other guild being declared the winners, letting her emotions flow as she limped through the streets of Crocus. At some point, she'd retrieved her belongings from Griffin's Claws' hotel, tossing the two bags into the red wagon that she drug behind her.

She ended up in a park as clouds formed overhead, slumping painfully onto a bench and looking up at the sky to allow the first drops of rain to land on her face. To Hellia, this was the summary of her day, she'd lost her battle, her guild, and everything she'd ever cherished. She deserved it, deserved every amount of misfortune that befell her that the Three Fates had deemed fit, deserved this horrible magic that she loved so much though it caused her so much trouble.

"I know what you did, Little Leprechaun."

Hellia opened the eyes she hadn't realized she'd closed and focused on the man standing near her, his hand clasping an object she'd thought was long lost. "That's my boot," She announced, mismatched eyes locked onto the hunk of leather- and she wasn't talking about the man, either.

"Is it?" He asked, tilting his head as a smirk graced his features. "Answer a couple of questions and I might return it."

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the man, having nowhere near enough energy to stand and she knew her glare was not effective in any way. Sighing heavily at the realization, Hellia nodded her head slightly, tucking the bootless foot beneath herself to hopefully warm it up a bit as the rain was seeping through her sock and freezing her toes.

"Why did you throw the match?"

Hellia's jaw clenched and she sucked in a breath as her head tilted back again, picturing what had happened at the end of the match. She'd looked at her guild and noticed that they hadn't cared for her, the realization of that being the end of her desire to even stay there. At the last moment, she had used her magic to change the coin out for one with two heads, guaranteeing her loss as it had been called by her opponent. At the time, it had seemed the right choice as she hadn't wanted to face the people who had clearly not cared about her as she'd lain battered and abused on the field and none had attempted to come to her aid.

"I didn't," She lied blatantly to the mysterious male, her eyes closing as a tear was disguised by the rain.

"You're lying," The man urged, surprising Hellia when he sat next to her on the bench and she looked over to get a better look at him.

He had maroon hair that looked thick and full as it spiked up wildly, though the rain was beginning to make it flatten to his head. One eye was missing, a scar stretching from near his hairline and ending just under the apple of his cheek, the other eye being dark- possibly a dark blue or black, if she'd been in the kind of lighting for her to see it clearly. He was inherently handsome and seemed highly interested in what she had to say, the idea making Hellia snort at herself and turn away from the unnamed man.

"What does it matter?" She asked with a humorless laugh. "I would have lost anyways." She knew that the blond she'd been facing was strong, had seen it herself two years before when he'd fought one of the men he now considered a guildmate, and Hellia had stood absolutely no chance against him to begin with. When her magic had failed her in the worst possible way, her fate had been sealed. Irritably, Hellia kicked the wagon that held everything she owned and she whimpered when she forgot that her boot was missing off of the foot she'd slammed into the wood.

"Most people I know would fight to the very end," The maroon haired man said casually, setting her boot on the bench between them.

Hellia was struck with the urge to snag the footwear and run, but she simply didn't have the energy, and she really was just tired of all the bullshit. Ever since she'd- _Nope, don't think about that right now_ , she told herself angrily. _Thinking about it will draw up the nightmares again and you really don't need that right now_. The man seemed to frown and regard her curiously but turned back away slowly and Hellia noted that his ears were pointed like an elves and he had at least the side facing her pierced with a simple gold hoop through it.

"Why did you throw the match?" The man repeated, pulling the raven haired beauty from her thoughts.

"I had nothing left to fight for," She replied finally, looking out at a couple who walked through the park hand-in-hand with an umbrella shared between them. She shivered softly in the rain and sighed when she remembered that her cloak had been bet away to some chick in the bar the night before. Lovely, now she would be homeless _and_ sick.

Mismatched eyes looked up in shock when a coat was put over her shoulders and Hellia's breath caught in her throat when she saw the man had given her his jacket. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes as she simply looked away, feeling nothing but grateful when she really hadn't felt any kindness in her life as she remembered all the times she'd gone to bed cold and hungry, been laughed at when she'd tripped in the guild, openly shoved off of a ladder when she had been retrieving a book from a high shelf in the library. All her life, Hellia had known nothing but malicious intent, and here this stranger was, giving her a jacket without her even having asked and unlikely to know if she had a coat in her wagon.

"You don't," The man said, snapping Hellia out of her thoughts as she blinked owlishly at him.

"What?" She asked lamely.

"You don't have a jacket, you lost it in a bet last night," He clarified, his response throwing the young woman through a loop. He chuckled at her expression and shook his head, scattering rain off of his maroon spikes. "I can hear your soul, almost like mind-reading, but not," He explained.

Hellia's plump lips formed a small 'o' at the explanation and she blushed when she realized he'd heard her appraisal of him, immediately turning away when he openly laughed at her. She bit her lip as the blush felt like it would permanently stain her whole upper body, casting her skin into a strange pink glow. She'd be known as the Flamingo Lady and be expected to peck shrimp from the bottom of shallow tubs of water for tips at the fair.

This brought another bark of laughter from the man and Hellia smiled slightly, her lashes lowering when she looked back to see him watching her with a smirk on his face. "Can I have my boot back?" She questioned softly, looking up at the still unnamed man before her.

"I'll make you a bet," The man said as his lips stretched into a wide grin.

"What kind of bet?" Hellia asked suspiciously, remembering that her last bet had gone severely wrong for herself and not really wanting to make it official, especially as her magic was really low due to her exhaustion.

"You don't have to set it with your magic," He informed her with a shake of his head. "All I want you to do is come with me back to my guild's hotel for the evening."

A fresh blush stained Hellia's cheeks and she began babbling in shock, unable to form words as her mind ran wild with the implications behind this man's words. He'd quite bluntly asked her back to his hotel for the night, after only knowing each other for a few minutes! And he was holding her boot hostage unless she did so!

"To be fair, I found the boot, so finder's keeper's," He remarked with a grin. "And, there isn't some nefarious plot behind this," He continued. "You don't have to warm my bed tonight unless you really want to." He sent a devilish smirk her way that had Hellia blushing harder than before, if that was even possible.

"That didn't sound like a bet," Hellia muttered, crossing her arms over her chest as she pouted.

"Fair," The man nodded seriously. "You can have the boot back if you can spend even an hour with my guild. Ask me if you can leave, you lose. Think about leaving, you lose."

"What if I do?" She asked, eying him with suspicion.

"If you lose, you owe me one favor, no questions asked," His grin spread once more and Hellia found herself frowning. "Able to be called in at any time."

She chewed her lip, trying to debate the ramifications of not going through with this bet. She'd have to buy new boots, but, without that one, she wouldn't be able to walk into a shop to buy a new pair. His guild couldn't be that bad, though, could it? They couldn't be worse than Griffin's Claws and treat her poorly. But, what if he was a dark mage? He didn't _look_ like a dark mage, but how would she know? She'd never gotten to go on a job before to meet a dark mage so she didn't even know what one looked like. Her face drained as she thought about him possibly luring her away to kill her and feed her to his pet wyvern that only ate pretty virgin girls.

"Virgin?" He questioned, raising a brow. "Good to know, but I'm not a dark mage, nor do I have a pet wyvern, though, that would be fucking awesome. Just take a chance, what do you have to lose?"

Hellia looked down at herself and then over to her wagon, the clothing there that she didn't even particularly care for as it was all mostly old hand-me-downs from other members of the guild. She'd never had anything that was just _hers_ and held literally nothing of importance, hell, even her magic was useless.

Heaving a sigh, Hellia struggled to her feet and gestured with her hand. "Lead the way, Mysterious Stranger," She said in a grandiose voice.

"Cobra," The man said with a grin and easily swept her into his arms with a shocked squeal. "Remember it, 'cause, I promise, you'll be screaming it eventually."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N;** _Another chapter! I really would love to know what you all think so far! The first chapter was actually taken really well to and I am literally still writing on this story and it's kind of taken over my writing time on other works-in-progress so I'm just going until I burn out! Enjoy!_

* * *

Hellia looked back over Cobra's shoulder, noting that he had left her wagon behind with a slight frown. "You don't need it," He assured, giving her a bit of a shake. "I'll buy you new stuff tomorrow."

This caused her brows to draw together as she pushed her soaked fringe from her eyes as the rain picked up. "Why?" Hellia asked, unsure what this man's reasons were behind everything he was doing.

"Because you need it," Cobra replied easily, continuing through the streets of Crocus with the small woman securely in his arms.

Hellia was hard-pressed to argue more with the man, but she felt it would be in her best interests to leave well enough alone. Instead, she summoned her coin and began twirling it between her fingers expertly, keeping herself entertained for a short while until she leaned back and continued the twirling as she studied Cobra's face a bit more.

He had a strong jawline and his lips were set in such a way that she wondered if his teeth were possibly too large for his mouth and causing the slightly puffed-out look on his upper lip. She noted in a streetlight that his iris was a wonderful amethyst color, the purple being as beautiful as anything she could have imagined. The scar wasn't able to be seen from the side she was on, so she couldn't appraise it more closely, not that she'd even be able to anyways as it was extremely dark out at this point and the rain was pelting down on both of them in thick sheets.

It occurred to her that at least the rain was washing away the blood from her skin that had crusted there after her match in the Games. That was one small blessing, she supposed, if there even was one to be found in this. At least she had someone who'd actually spoken to her as an adult and not as one would speak to a deaf child- her old guildmates had spoken to her in loud, slow voices, accentuating every word that they said and treated her like an invalid.

Sure, she'd tripped and fallen on her face at a minimum of twice a day for as long as she'd been walking, and maybe she'd broken more than a few objects that weren't her own in accidents. She'd lost enough fights that she'd been disallowed from going on any jobs where using her magic was needed and had been, in the end, banned from leaving the guild at all. And, sure, Hellia had probably caused a whole lot of problems for others due to her clumsiness, but all of that had been- and always would be- affecting herself more than anyone else.

She was the one who ended up with scrapes and bruises, she was the one who ended up having to clean the messes of the items that usually held little to no value and were simply cried over because it was Hellia who had caused the problem in the first place. She was the one who missed out on spending money and had been stuck with the bullshit hand-me-downs that she'd owned her entire life. Nothing would ever make her forget the fact that she now knew she was an outcast within her guild and no longer had a home, if she'd ever really had one at all to begin with.

"You think a lot," Cobra commented as he rounded another corner in the wet streets of Crocus.

Hellia frowned, she'd forgotten that he could hear what she was thinking… "Sorry," She whispered softly, feeling ashamed that her new friend- or whatever he was- had heard all of her lamenting. Gods, he probably thought she was fucking pathetic right now after all of that. She silently cursed her stupid wandering mind and fought the urge to push her way out of the man's arms so she could just walk away alone as she was sure he was regretting his decision to have her come back with him at this point.

"Nah," He remarked with a smirk. "I've heard worse. Takes more than a pity-party to scare me off."

This brought a heavy sigh from her slightly wavering lips, her teeth clenched so as to not chatter in the cold. She told herself to stop the bullshit, she should be used to the cold after her nights with the paper-thin blanket and cold cement room that had been set aside as both her bedroom and the cleaning supply closet. Gods, the more she thought about it, the worse Hellia realized her life had truly been within Griffin's Claws…

Her attention was drawn when Cobra stopped walking in front of a hotel that seemed to be bustling with life. She looked at the building, mystified by the amount of energy pouring out from within the place as Cobra set her on her feet and crouched down. A blush formed on Hellia's cheeks when he lifted her foot and slid her boot onto it, taking care to tie both boots before he stood back up.

"I t-though I w-wasn't getting it b-back until after I'd spent t-time with your g-guild?" She stammered out through chattering teeth.

Cobra grinned and pulled his coat closed tighter around her small body. "Consider it payment for keeping me company," He assured as he turned them both towards the door and slung an arm over her shoulders before he pushed them open.

Hellia was highly perplexed by this man, he seemed as though he would be cold- detached, even- and, yet, there he was, being surprisingly gentle with her. He'd carried her in such a way that she'd felt like a precious doll that was easily broken, had spoken to her in a far kinder way than anyone had before him, had given her boot back without their bet being completed. What completely confused her was the fact that there was a dangerous aura around Cobra that screamed for her to run as far away from him as she could, though another part of her brain told Hellia that there really was no safer place for her to be. What was it about this man?

She was brought from her inner musings as he practically drug her into the hotel, and into chaos. There were many people shouting, chanting, and cheering, mages gathered as some kind of drinking game was played, even a couple young girls playing with some adorable cats. The place was so full of life that Hellia hesitated even as the arm around her shoulders urged her to move forward.

The toe of one foot caught on the heel of her other foot and she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the impact as she began tilting forward. An arm wrapped around her chest and settled her upright, bracing her into a strongly muscular chest. Hellia opened her eyes to look up at Cobra who was grinning down at her and a blush dusted her cheeks at their proximity.

"Thank you," She said in a shy whisper.

"Careful, mi alma," Cobra chuckled out as he readjusted how they were standing. "Don't need you accidentally killing yourself in front of all of Fairy Tail."

Hellia's eyes went wide and she turned to the gathered people, all of them having stopped their ruckus as they simply stared at her. She blushed and stepped back slightly, moving herself a bit behind Cobra and nibbling on her lip nervously. It wasn't until she'd looked back up that she realized it wasn't _her_ they were staring at, but Cobra. What…

"Cobra found her!" A blond male cheered, raising his beer glass high into the air as the rest of the people erupted into ear-deafening cheers.

Hellia desperately wanted to run, wanted so much to turn around and disappear into the night as she was surrounded by people- or, would have been had Cobra not stopped everyone by a simple glare. She felt every muscle in her body tense as she fought the urge to flee, wanting to thank this man in some way for his simple kindness by doing as he'd asked and spend the evening with his guild. It was no easy feat to keep herself glued to his side, her knuckles turning white as she clasped the dark fabric of the thermal shirt he wore.

She was pulled along to the bar where several people- including the man that had fought Hellia at the Games- were seated, drinking their drinks and chatting idly. Her eyes cast down to the ground as she shifted nervously from foot to foot when the man, Laxus, turned to her and his stormy gaze locked onto her face. Hellia had never felt such intense scrutiny before and she was, once again, overcome with the urge to bolt.

"Of course she'd have to be the most skittish woman you could find," The beefy male remarked with a smirk. "The confident ones wouldn't be stupid enough to come within five feet of you, Bleach Breath."

"She isn't stupid," Cobra nearly snarled, catching Hellia completely off-guard when she'd felt shame cloud her mind. "And I don't want to hear you say that again, Sparkler."

Hellia was taken aback by the pure venom in Cobra's voice when talking to the larger man, her eyes going slightly wide as she looked up at him. No one had ever stood up for her before, either. Cobra had done a lot of things for her already in her hour of knowing him that she'd never even thought of someone else doing for her. What made her so special that someone so handsome and kind would even care about her?

Her hand stilled when his rough hand covered hers, halting the nervous motion of toying with her coin again and making Hellia take a shaky breath. She wanted nothing more than to run away, find a place of solitude, and cry as she felt her emotions take a darker path that had her mind closing down slightly. She was severely overwhelmed by the presence of these people and her emotions were in turmoil over everything that had happened since a strange man had walked up to her in the rain with her boot in his hand.

"Apologize."

Hellia looked up to see a beautiful blonde woman glaring heatedly at the scarred man, her gaze fierce enough that the pink haired man on the other side of her edged away slightly. She found herself being surprised when she heard the words that Laxus uttered next, shock clear upon her pale features.

"Alright, alright," The man groaned, shoving away the hand of the woman as she reached for his ear. "Don't grab my ear again, Blondie. Look, I'm sorry, calling you stupid wasn't called for."

The raven haired woman looked down slightly, feeling extremely uncomfortable and unaccustomed to hearing anyone actually apologizing to her. Usually, any apology sent her way was followed up by some degrading comment and was never directed towards placating any hard feelings she might have. This was a whole new situation and Hellia had no idea how she should react.

"Hi, I'm Lucy," The blonde woman greeted, drawing mismatched eyes back up to see a kind smile on the beautiful woman's face. "Don't let him get to you, Sparky here is socially awkward."

"Like I'm not," Hellia muttered to herself, earning a chuckle from Cobra that rumbled through her shoulder that was pressed into his side.

Lucy seemed to have heard as well as her tinkling laugh bubbled up from her throat and brought a small quirk to the other woman's lips. "We can work on that," She assured with a bright smile. "Why don't we go get you into some dry clothes while Cobra talks to the Master?"

Hellia looked uncertainly up at Cobra who rose a brow at her, his expression clearly told her that the decision was entirely in her hands and she found herself liking the soothing presence of this blonde woman. So, with a slight nod, Hellia was released from Cobra's hold and her hand was clasped by that of Lucy's to be drug away from the hotel's bar. Casting a look back over her shoulder, she saw Cobra bent over a table, speaking intensely to a small man with white hair and a cheery smile on his face.

"It looks like we're not even close to the same size," Lucy commented as she opened the door to a room on the first floor of the large hotel.

"Then, how…"

"Punishment?"

Hellia nearly jumped out of her skin when a pink haired woman in a maid outfit popped up out of thin air. Her face was eerily stoic and made the Luck Mage extremely uncomfortable, even more so than being in the crowded hotel bar had. She was admittedly beautiful, but it was the words that had Hellia's eyes going wide with shock. Had she just asked for punishment?

"Not today, Virgo," Lucy laughed out, waving off the maid. "Can you get Hellia some dry clothes? And possibly dry Cobra's coat?"

"Of course, hime," The woman, Virgo, said with a formal bow. "Should I also send Cancer out?"

"If you could, that would be wonderful," The blonde replied with a smile as she helped Hellia out of the white coat and passed it to the maid.

The woman disappeared and Hellia found herself surprised to see the pinkette disappear in a cloud of pink smoke and glittering gold dust. She was curious enough to edge somewhat closer to the spot she'd just been standing in, investigating the area closely as she wondered just where the woman had gone. Hellia jumped once again when the person- or whatever she was- appeared right back where she'd been before, holding a bundle of clothes with Cobra's coat neatly folded on top with a pair of boots nearly identical to the ones on Hellia's feet.

"I hope this is satisfactory," Virgo said in a monotone voice.

"This is great," Lucy replied, taking the bundle of clothing and setting it aside. "Thank you, Virgo. Tell Cancer to give us about five minutes so she can dress."

The maid bowed once more and vanished, leaving the two women alone in the large hotel room once more. Hellia looked over to see Lucy smiling kindly at her and studying her a bit from across the room. A bit embarrassed, Hellia reached up to touch her face, thinking maybe she had something on it.

"I'm sorry," The blonde said on a laugh. "Here, you can get changed in the bathroom. When you're done, you can leave the clothes on the edge of the tub and I'll have Virgo clean them to give back to you tomorrow."

Nodding dimly, Hellia accepted the clothing and entered the bathroom, purposefully avoiding the mirror as she knew she looked terrible after spending so long out in the rain without a coat. She set the clothes on the closed toilet and quickly undressed, tossing her wet clothing into the tub to land with distinctly wet 'plops'. She surveyed the clothing and noted that there were undergarments as well, so stripped away the ragged set she wore and used a towel to dry away the dampness on her body and get the worst out of her hair without taking it out of her braided bun.

The clothes, it turned out, were actually something she felt she would have chosen for herself had she been able to do so. She slid on the simple emerald colored bra and panty set before pulling on a pair of jean shorts and a darker green tank top that fit her body perfectly. A sweater in a burgundy shade was made from the softest material that Hellia had ever felt and was oversized as she slid it on and buttoned the front, hanging off of one shoulder in a cute way. The boots also fit her perfectly, feeling much more comfortable than her previous ones and zipped up the ankles instead of tied, making the chances of her tripping over laces less likely.

She walked out of the bathroom, toying with the sleeves of her sweater nervously as she looked at Lucy. The blonde smiled brightly and grasped Hellia by the hands to pull her over to a chair. "Virgo is so good at that," She was commenting cheerfully. "She's the best at picking out clothing people would like without even speaking to them."

As she spoke, another person literally 'poofed' into the room, this one causing Hellia to jump slightly less than the first, though her eyes turned into saucers at the sight of his hands that resembled crab claws. She gulped slightly and sat still, not quite sure what was going to happen as the man snapped scissors in his human hands.

"Just dry her hair and leave it natural for now, Cancer, if you could," The blonde said brightly to the man… thing. "I'm sure she won't want it to be too different than it is, but we don't want her getting split ends from it drying how it is."

"Got it, ebi," Cancer replied with a snap to his scissors.

Hellia watched in the mirror, entranced, as her hair was swiftly released from it's pins to tumble down her back before it stopped halfway to the floor. She heard Lucy's gentle gasp at the sheer amount of hair that she had and Hellia resisted the urge to smile while she watched the man quickly snap his scissors over her hair and, in no time, it was dry as could be and all of the frayed ends were gone. Her fringe was braided out of her face and pinned behind her ear, creating an almost crown over the top of her head and made Hellia think of a faerie queen from the story books she'd read one time.

"All done, ebi," The man said with a bow.

"Awesome, thank you so much, Cancer," Lucy replied, smiling as the man disappeared like the woman before him had. She stood up and grinned, "Alright, let's get back out there."

Hellia nodded slightly, feeling a bit more comfortable around the woman and being grateful for the kindness she'd received. She stopped at the bathroom, snagging Cobra's coat off of the toilet seat where she'd left it, and followed Lucy as they made their way back into the bar where everything went dead silent as the two women walked back in.

The raven haired beauty shied away from the attention, wishing her fringe were down so she could hide behind her hair as she'd done before. She felt Lucy grasp her hand and hesitantly followed when she was pulled across the room to where Cobra was sitting with the old man she'd seen him speaking to when they'd left.

The maroon haired man glanced over and Hellia found herself perplexed when he visibly licked his lips- surely, she'd been seeing things, right? Her hands moved automatically as she practically thrust the coat in her hands towards him and looked down at the ground in a blatant show of shyness.

"Thank you for letting me use this," Hellia said quickly, avoiding eye contact at any cost.

It was when his hand settled over hers that Hellia sucked in a breath and looked up, mismatched eyes landing on the single amethyst eye of the man who had helped her so very much in the short while they'd known each other. She chewed her lip when he seemed to study her face and felt a blush creeping up her neck from the prolonged eye contact.

Both mages glanced over when a loud throat-clearing was heard and Hellia fully blushed scarlet at the old man who was grinning at the two of them. Her hand dropped immediately as she urged herself not to edge closer to the man who had felt oh so very safe to her on the walk over to the hotel before. She couldn't rely on him or his security forever and needed to get ahold of herself, this was the Master of the guild she'd lost to earlier today, damnit!

"Hellia, was it?" The old man questioned with a toothy grin. When she couldn't find it within herself to respond with words, Hellia simply nodded, cursing her shyness and the awkward nature that seemed to be all she knew how to do. "I'm Makarov Dreyar, Master of Fairy Tail."

Hellia nodded again, she knew that information- well, not his name, but she'd guessed he was the Master of Fairy Tail after the phrasing used before and had known she was in Fairy Tail's hotel when Cobra had said so, even if she would have realized it when seeing Laxus there. If there was anything in her life she wished she would live through, it was her mortification as she shivered in pure fear when she began to wonder if this man was about to openly laugh at her and mock her for the loss she'd gained during the Grand Magic Games only a few hours prior. Her eyes flickered over when Cobra put a hand on her shoulder, comforting the fidgety woman in a moment.

"I would like to ask you a few questions, child," Makarov continued, making Hellia even more uncomfortable. "Is that alright?" When she simply nodded, looking down slightly, the man continued. "Were you kicked out of your old guild?"

Hellia sucked in a breath and looked up sharply, her heart hammering in her chest. She glanced at Cobra when she felt his hand give her shoulder a gentle squeeze and she saw him smile reassuringly at her, the motion being nothing but that as her nerves calmed considerably. "Yes," The raven haired woman stated as she looked back at the small man.

"Why?"

"I…" Hellia chewed her lip, summoning her coin as she fidgeted with it and tried to decide if it was in her best interests to answer honestly. The squeeze on her shoulder had mismatched eyes closing and she took a deep breath before she answered. "My moth- Master," She corrected, not daring to call that horrid woman her mother any longer. "My Master made a bet with me that stated if I lost at any point in the Games, I would not be able to return to the guild. It was magically binding, she used my magic against me." Hellia felt tears prick at her eyes and she forced them back, determined not to shed them here in case they were only gathering this information to laugh at her pain as so many others had before them.

"Do you have any idea why she would want you out of Griffin's Claws?" Makarov continued, his brows furrowed in concentration.

This drew a heavy sigh from Hellia as the coin snapped back into her magic, the pliable object disappearing completely. "I'm clumsy," She responded slowly, drawing up every conversation she'd ever had with that woman. "I'm useless, I can't do anything right. When I'm asked to do something, I somehow always find a way to fuck it up and it's a wonder I haven't died yet either by killing myself on purpose of from sheer bad luck. Everything about me is a mistake, just like her saving me from that place."

"That place?"

"I was part of a slave labor thing," Hellia had shut down completely and was staring off into space as she answered automatically, her body rigid and not sensing the fact that the hand on her shoulder had gone tense, the knuckles a stark white against mocha skin. "Born in a place called the Tower of Heaven to a woman raped by a guard. She died, someone broke into the Tower and saved everyone, my old Master found me and decided I was pretty enough to raise. She told me every day after that that she highly regretted doing so, how she should have left me for the guards to sell to a different slave trade."

Hellia was shocked when she was pulled into Cobra's chest and strong arms were wrapped around her, a strange purring sound coaxing her out of that locked box she'd retreated into during the questioning. He was so warm, his embrace so soothing to her, especially with the odd purring sound emanating from his chest and reverberating through her own body. It felt like something that she couldn't quite put a name to, something she'd never truly felt in her life before.

"I have one final question, child," Makarov said softly, garnering Hellia's attention once more. She looked over and she was shocked to the core when the man asked her his last question, her mismatched eyes going as wide as saucers. "Would you like to join Fairy Tail?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N;** _Thank you so much to those two lovely guests who left me reviews last chapter! I really hope I'm not rushing this too much but like... It really is much slower-paced than I usually write and I've got 6 total chapters completed already with chapter 7 in the works and likely to be completed tomorrow. For some strange reason, this story just keeps flowing..._

 _Anyways! More angsty Hellia and a bit more of the brash Cobra we all know and love!_

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 ** _Word Count:_** _3,738_

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Hellia's breath came whooshing out of her lungs, unsure if she'd just heard the man correctly and being almost certain this was some strange dream. There was no way she was being asked to join the notoriously powerful guild of Fairy Tail on the same day that she'd lost to them, that would be pure insanity. That was it, she was losing her mind and someone was going to lock her up any time now, throw her into the bowels of Era where she would be forgotten about and never heard from again.

She looked back up at Cobra who rose a brow at her in question, a small smirk quirking his lips that made the woman realize that this wasn't a joke, there was no punchline, no one was going to point at her and yell "just kidding!" at her. So, it stood to reason, that she should jump at the chance, should accept it, right? Except… She'd literally _just_ lost to these people, had proven that she wasn't worth anyone's time as she'd thrown her match against the blond man, even if she'd been about to lose to begin with. So… why?

The raven haired woman chewed her lip, knowing that she needed the answer to that question before she could make a decision. "Why me?" She asked with a slight frown. It made no sense why they would offer her a spot in a guild that was so strong when she was very obviously weak in both physical and mental strength.

"You're not weak," Cobra growled under his breath. "You made it out of that fucking Tower, lived with a guild that treated you like shit, and accepted defeat in front of a massive crowd. You're far from weak, mi alma."

Hellia gazed at the man with a mixed form of shock and total awe written across her face. He'd barely known her for two hours and here this man was, reassuring her that she was stronger than she gave herself credit for. She found herself thinking for the second time that evening what it was about that man that made her feel so comfortable around him.

"I…" Mismatched eyes turned back to the small Master and Hellia took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Okay."

A huge grin spread across his face as the old man produced a stamp from seemingly nowhere and brandished it. "Where would you like your guildmark and what color?" He asked seriously.

Hellia frowned when she thought about that, unsure where she should have her mark and not really knowing where would be appropriate. She hadn't been allowed to choose where the previous one had been and, instead, had been forced to accept the top of her thigh in an ugly yellow color that she truly couldn't stand as yellow was by far her least favorite color and she hated her thighs with a passion.

Her mind drifted to the place over her heart, though that seemed a bit cliché and she didn't really want anything there as she planned on getting a tattoo at some point, the same being said for her back. Waist was maybe a little trampy, top of the foot was pointless as she wore boots all the time, and back of the hand was simply not her. A frown formed on her face when she failed to come up with an idea on where to place her mark, the color already being decided as she could think of nothing but amethyst purple- refusing to believe it was because it reminded her of someone else's eyes.

"How about the back of the neck?" Cobra suggested, drawing the woman from her thoughts and making her blink as she realized she'd likely been standing there with mixed expressions for about five minutes. Hellia thought about it and nodded finally, making a grin stretch over Cobra's face. "Let me do it?" He half-asked, half-demanded of the Master as he held out his hand expectantly.

Makarov handed over the stamp with no qualms and Hellia allowed herself to be turned around away from Cobra. The man slid his hand along her neck, making Hellia shiver slightly as he moved her hair away from the spot and placed the stamp to her skin. She felt the slight sting of magic into her neck for a moment before it cooled away and a calloused finger traced over the spot in a soothing motion.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail," Cobra whispered in her ear, his hot breath drawing another shiver from the woman. It almost sounded like whispered promises and had a feeling she'd never experienced before twisting in the pit of her stomach, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment on a shaky breath.

"Alright, brats!" The Master's voice boomed, making Hellia's eyes snap open and a creeping blush tint her cheeks and neck. "We've added a new member to our family! Welcome, Hellia, to Fairy Tail!"

She pressed her lips together, bracing for the rejection she was sure would be coming, yet it never came. Instead, to the young woman's surprise, cheers erupted and the mages seemed to gain new life as they began their party anew. She feared them swarming herself and edged closer to Cobra when several people came up to her asking questions that seemed to overlap each other and overwhelmed the small woman who tried to keep up with them all, but couldn't stop her heart from hammering in her chest.

"Come on," Cobra's voice whispered in her ear once more as he grasped her hand and tugged her towards the door, being sure that no one got too close to the woman.

Hellia was wheezing for breath at that point, her lungs seeming to seize up and refusing to allow her to take a proper breath until she found herself on a balcony outside of a room on the topmost floor of the hotel. Her mismatched eyes went wide in awe at the sight, not having realized she was in one of the highest positioned hotels within Crocus as she looked out over the lit up city far below.

She noted that the rain had stopped and the air was cool, the dampness having given the city the sharp scent of the flowers it had been named for. Lights flickered in the city as there appeared to be many other parties happening with as many mages as had been pulled into the Capitol. It was beautiful, almost like looking at fireflies in the night and Hellia found her breath coming back into her as her heart was filled with a sense of wonder at the sight.

"Thank you," Hellia whispered out, turning to the man who was leaning onto the railing with his body braced on his elbows.

She knew that he understood what she meant, that she wasn't just talking about getting her out of the overcrowded bar, not just talking about bringing her to a guild that she felt could become a home. It was thanks that he'd saved her from a life of loneliness and sadness, thanks that he'd given her so many firsts in one night that would remain with her for the remainder of her life. Thanks that he'd shown her that there truly was more to the world than serving others and thanks that he'd simply been a shoulder that she hadn't ever realized that she'd needed.

To her surprise, Hellia found herself once again wrapped in the warm embrace of the muscled arms of Cobra. She breathed deeply, smelling the rain on his clothing that coated his natural scent, a scent she found deeply intoxicating. He smelled of hemlock and cocoa, two scents that she hadn't ever thought would be nice together but could fast become her favorite. It was then that she had a name for the feeling that he'd drawn forth from her at the moment he'd first embraced her, he felt like home.

Hellia looked up curiously at the strange purr that erupted from his chest, her eyes searching his face for answers on what that was. Her lips parted slightly, wanting to ask him what that purring sound was, yet not wanting it to stop as it was so comforting and filled her with a sense of ease and calm. It was beginning to make her tired and a yawn was pulled from her mouth even as she realized how exhausted she truly was.

"Let's get you to sleep," Cobra murmured softly, pulling her back towards the room where he sat her on the bed.

The raven haired woman couldn't find it in herself to argue as she was so very tired, though a blush still spread when he pulled her feet into his lap and pulled her boots off, setting them aside as his calloused hands smoothed up her calves. Hellia was entranced by the look in his eye and she found a soft smile spreading across her face at the wave of calm spread through herself by this man, whom she'd known a grand total of three hours at this point in time. It was strange that she felt so at ease around him, her wild mind seeming to simply be lost in the breeze that was this wonderful man who only had to be near for him to affect her.

She chewed her lip when he stood back up, grasping the sweater she wore and sliding each button open one at a time until it slid down her shoulders. She kept her eyes level with his, refusing to look away from the enchanting amethyst gaze that remained locked onto hers with a quiet intensity that caused her blood to burn in her veins. The feel of his knuckles as he traced them down the side of her neck had Hellia's lips parting on a trembling sigh, her skin tingling in the wake of his touch.

"Would you like something to change into?" Cobra questioned, his voice almost sounding to Hellia as though he were just as affected by their closeness as she was, though she couldn't imagine why.

Her eyes lowered on the thought, realizing that this man was likely just being nice to her because she was pathetic. There was absolutely no way that a man like Cobra would be interested in someone like her. Sure, he'd told her she wasn't weak, but that really didn't mean that she wasn't, it didn't mean that he wasn't on a completely different level than she was.

"I am," He said in response to her thoughts, making Hellia pull away as her fears were proven to be true. Cobra's hand gripped her chin, forcing her to look up at him directly to see how intense his face was. "You've got it wrong. I'm not better than you, it's _you_ that's better than _me_."

This caused Hellia's brows to draw together in confusion as her mind worked to figure out how that could possibly be true. He was stronger both physically and mentally, obviously much more attractive than she was as she'd seen the way some of the women in the bar had looked at him with lust in their eyes. There was no way she could even compare to someone like Cobra, couldn't even come close.

"Those women were looking at you," Cobra chuckled out with a shake to his head. "Hell, everyone in the damn bar was. You're a lot more beautiful than you give yourself credit for."

Hellia sighed through her nose and directed her gaze down, unable to move her head as it was still held in his hand by the chin. "I'm really not," She said quietly. "Why does it even matter? I'm not even that special."

This time, it was Cobra who sighed as his hand dropped from her face. "More special than you know," He said in a low tone before turning away to a bag laid out on a chair. He rifled through it a moment before holding out a shirt and pair of boxers to Hellia who accepted them quietly.

His words rung through her head as she got up and moved into the bathroom to change, wondering what he'd meant by her being special. To her, special was a word used to describe someone who held more importance than others, had some attribute that made them irreplaceable in this world to any number of people. She held no importance to anyone, and that, in effect, made her far less than special.

Hellia exited the bathroom with her shorts, tank top, and bra in her hand, shifting from foot to foot nervously when she saw Cobra laying on the bed with a clean black thermal and long pants in a dull gray. She herself had put on his shirt that fell to just cover the bottom of her ass, having pulled on the boxers over her panties and rolled them up. Her long hair was pulled into a braid and she'd used the band that had been on her wrist to tie off the end to prevent severe tangles in her sleep.

Gathering up her nerve, Hellia walked over to the chair that held Cobra's bag and placed her bundle of clothing there before making her way to the other side of the bed. She'd shared beds with others before and was used to laying on the edge so that she didn't disturb them at all on the very few times that she'd been allowed out of the guild on the missions that required her to accompany someone to simply report back to the Master. She'd never been allowed to use her magic and had often been given an inhibitor that prevented her from even calling it forth while outside of the guild, everyone calling her magic far too unpredictable for her to be allowed to be in the regular world without it while being part of Griffin's Claws, though they didn't know about the magic that inhibitors couldn't stop her from using anyways.

"Stop thinking," Cobra ordered with his hand over his eyes. "And move over a bit before you fall off the damn bed. I'm not going to throw you out if you touch me and I promise not to bite… Tonight, anyways."

That last comment brought a furious blush to the woman's face, making her choke out a breath as she stammered, attempting to form some type of words in response and failing horribly. Hellia had never had anyone be so straightforward, had never even had anyone approach her in such a way after they'd known her for more than five minutes. It was-

"I already told you to stop thinking," The maroon haired man snapped with his tone sounding highly annoyed. "Stop overthinking things and just sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow and I would _really_ like to get some rest before dealing with all the drunks downstairs."

Hellia closed her eyes and faced away from the man, willing herself to simply fall asleep. She didn't like making people upset, never really tried to before while in her old guild, it just kind of… happened. Anything she did seemed to annoy people and she was surprised that this man had willingly spent so much time with her, had even allowed her to sleep in the bed with him without trying for something else. It just proved that she was as undesirable as she imagined she was, honestly. Unless he had another woman that she hadn't met yet or something like that, it wouldn't be too farfetched if-

Mismatched eyes went wide when she was forcibly pulled onto her back with Cobra towering over her, catching the intense look on his face before his lips pressed to hers roughly. Hellia couldn't help her reaction as her arms immediately wrapped around his neck, pulling him down so that she could press their bodies into each other and hummed softly when she could feel his hand grip her exposed hip, his mouth slanting over hers.

Cobra's tongue swiped over her bottom lip and Hellia was unsure what to do until a pinch to her hip had her lips parting on a gasp. His tongue pressed into her mouth, coaxing hers into a twirling dance and the taste of a sweet almond mocha burst across her taste buds. It was intoxicating, leaving Hellia's head reeling and her toes curling.

Her eyes opened wide on a gasp when Cobra broke the kiss and pressed his hips roughly into her own, his hard length brushing up against her heated core and drawing strange sensations from deep within her stomach. "Don't kid yourself," Cobra's voice was husky as he leaned down to drag his teeth along Hellia's neck, making her shiver when she felt sharper than normal teeth brush her frantic pulse. "I want you far more than you fucking know. It's taking everything in my power not to take you right fucking now because it would scare the hell out of you if I was to do that."

His words brought a shiver from the raven haired woman even as his wet tongue slid up her neck. "W-Why?" She stammered out through shaking breaths, a flush decorating her pale skin.

"Because you aren't ready for something like that," He rasped against her throat. "So," He rolled off of her and pulled her small body into his chest, that wonderful purr rumbling there once again. "Get some sleep and we'll revisit this when I know you aren't going to bolt as soon as my pants come off."

That brought another shuddering breath from the woman and she would have opened her mouth so say something more but the rumbling from the man behind her made Hellia relax enough that her mind refused to make proper words. Eventually, she slipped into unconsciousness, her dreams filled with a dark man with a single amethyst eye and images that her mind couldn't quite comprehend.

* * *

Hellia awoke with sweat clinging to her skin and a strange dampness between her legs, her breaths came out ragged as she rolled over, slinging an arm over her face. She'd never in her life had dreams like that in all twenty years that she'd been alive, they were so graphic, so… carnal. It swamped the woman with a desire she didn't understand, wasn't sure she would ever truly know what it was that she wanted, only that she knew she wanted it from the maroon haired mage with a crooked smile that smelled like hemlock and cocoa and tasted like sweet almond mocha.

Sighing heavily, Hellia pushed up from the bed and attempted to get herself back into a sane state of mind. She drug a hand through her hair and frowned, noting that it had still tangled even though it had been braided to prevent that from happening. She really needed to get a handle on herself, honestly.

The sound of the shower in the other room caught her attention and Hellia figured Cobra had been up a lot longer than she had as there was a cart of food across the room. She moved quickly, hoping to be dressed before Cobra finished his shower. She seemed to have managed just in time as he emerged from the bathroom with a towel in his hand to dry his thick maroon locks while she finished zipping up her boots.

"Eat something," He ordered, tossing the towel haphazardly over his shoulder and moving across the room to go through his bag.

Hellia was frozen in place, her jaw hanging slightly ajar at the sight of the man with only a towel wrapped around his waist. She could see the muscles rippling beneath his mocha skin as he grabbed clothing, her mind wandering back to her dream the night before and that strange twisting feeling building back up in her stomach. Her eyes traveled up obvious abs when he turned back towards her and she blushed when she saw him watching her intently.

"S-Sorry," Hellia stammered, looking away so she could drag her fingers through her long hair to try and get out the worst of the tangles.

Cobra said nothing before he walked away, a strange look on his face. The woman sighed, twisting her hair into a bun and wrapped a thin braid around it, quickly pinning the raven locks into place before she stood up and grabbed a muffin off of the cart piled with food. It appeared he'd already eaten as there were several wrappers already piled in the trash that Hellia noticed when she added hers to the collection and sat on the bed, nibbling on the food while she waited for the man to reemerge.

The man walked out of the bathroom dressed in one of the thermal shirts that she wondered if he wore for some specific reason and a pair of black jeans, moving to the bed so he could sit down and pull on his boots. By the time he'd drug on his coat, Hellia had finished her muffin and was sipping a small cup of apple juice, washing down the food and being happy she'd had something real to eat for the first time in a while. Before, she'd only been allowed to have the dry and stale food that was leftover from when the rest of the guild had eaten at the end of the day, nearly always ending up being a cold soup of some sort and there not being nearly enough for her to feel full as even the dogs that one of the members had owned had taken priority over herself.

Hellia was forced to look up when Cobra once again grasped her chin and lifted her face so she was gazing into that entrancing amethyst eye. "You won't go hungry with me," He promised, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip. "Don't think about the past, only think about what is happening now. I don't want to hear any of that pity-party bullshit today."

"What are we doing?" She asked after nodding slightly in agreement to his words.

A smirk formed on Cobra's face when he pulled Hellia to her feet and led her out of the hotel with his arm around her waist. "I told you I would buy you some clothes," He said before looking down at her. "And I'm pretty sure you owe me a favor."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N;** _I'm so excited about the response this story has been getting! Thank you sooooo much to those who commented last chapter; **Missy 63** and **animegirl549** ! I'm happy you guys are loving super sweet Cobra as much as I am! More fluff and teasing? Hmmm... I think yes!_

 _Enjoy the chapter!_

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 _ **Word Count:** 4,717_

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"A favor?" Hellia questioned as her dark brows drew together in confusion. She wasn't entirely sure what he'd meant by that and wasn't sure if she should be afraid of whatever this man had in mind.

"Yep," Cobra said, popping the 'p' cheerily. "You thought about bolting multiple times last night when we were in the bar. So, you owe me a favor of my own choosing, to be called at any time, mi alma."

Hellia's lips pursed when she realized that he was right before a sigh escaped her mouth. She resigned herself to whatever this man had in mind and found herself smiling slightly when Lucy stood by the doors of the hotel with a bright smile on her face and a very bored looking Laxus by her side.

"Hey, Hellia," Lucy greeted, quickly grabbing the woman's hand and walking out of the building, leaving the men behind them. "How did you sleep? Was Cobra an ass? I hope that idiot didn't do anything to freak you out. Though, if he had, you wouldn't have walked down with his arm around your waist."

The Luck Mage found herself trying to keep up with the questions and comments that left the blonde's lips as she was pulled through the streets of Crocus, glancing back to see that Cobra and Laxus were walking a bit behind them and glaring at anything that got too close to the two women. She looked back to Lucy and took a small breath, trying to remind herself that this woman was now a guildmate and wouldn't treat her like she'd been treated before.

"I slept okay," Hellia said with a light blush on her cheeks when she remembered her dream again, then seeing Cobra in nothing but a towel. "He didn't do anything… um… bad," She added on, blushing a bit harder as the kiss came to mind. That had been her first kiss and she'd never imagined it to leave her so… needy for something she wasn't sure how to explain.

"Good," The woman nodded firmly with a serious face. "Cause if he had done anything wrong, I would have had to kill him, Kin or not."

"Kin?" The smaller woman questioned softly, not really understanding the term.

"Well, yeah," Lucy replied with a laugh as she pulled Hellia into a market that was sprawling with all kinds of wares and stopped to browse a stall holding jewelry that looked far too expensive for anything Hellia had ever seen before in her life. "He's a Dragon Slayer," The blonde explained as she pointed out a necklace of gorgeous ice blue and golden yellow sapphires in a single row.

Hellia found herself running her fingertips over the piece before quickly pulling her hand away again, remembering that she was severely unlucky and not wanting to break anything. "What is a Dragon Slayer?" She asked Lucy as they moved on to a boutique that sold expressly women's clothing.

"It's a kind of magic," The woman responded, grabbing a rolling rack and putting a divider in the middle.

"I thought he had some kind of soul magic?" Hellia was confused, tugging on her sweater sleeves as she tried to wrap her mind around some kind of magic having to do with dragons, especially as she was told dragons had died out centuries ago.

Lucy nodded and placed a few sweaters on one side of the rack, "He does. He has a lacrama implanted that gives him another magic, like Laxus. It makes them second-generation slayers."

"Oh."

Hellia wasn't sure what this had to do with that word Lucy had used before… what was it? Kin? What did that even mean? She was interested, but didn't want to press the woman for more information, not wanting to scare off the first woman who had spoken to her without sounding condescending.

"When a slayer finds someone who they deem as worthy," Lucy continued, adding a few pairs of shorts onto the other side of the rack before moving to a table with undergarments that had the darker haired woman blushing vibrantly as she glanced back to see the two men standing outside of the shop looking bored as could be. "They claim them as Kin. This means that anyone who were to touch that person would be breaking draconic law and sentenced to death by the slayer or any punishment he or she deems fit. I'm Kin to all six of the other slayers."

"So, I'm his… Kin?" Hellia questioned, thinking maybe she understood.

This brought a chiming laugh from the other woman and Hellia flushed when she shook her head. "No," She replied after she'd gotten ahold of herself. "You're far more important than that. Just like I am to Laxus," She moved her hair to the side and that was when Hellia noticed the mark that she'd missed the night before.

Dozens of tiny yellow scales rose from the woman's skin, massing together into the shape of a thunderbolt and appearing to connect two larger scales at each end. The scales seemed to glow with some form of unseen energy and, as Hellia reached out hesitantly to touch it, she was surprised to feel a shock of electricity pass towards her finger.

"What…" She didn't know how to phrase her question, wanting to know so much of what was connected to the strange marking.

"It's a mating mark," Lucy explained easily, letting her hair fall back into place. "I'm Laxus' mate, which is kind of like… hmm…" She seemed to think for a minute as she placed a few pairs of panties into a bag attached to the rack. "Okay, you know in stories how dragons have a hoard?" When Hellia nodded, Lucy smiled softly, "Think of a mate as the most important treasure that a slayer could ever add to that hoard. They're bound together by the soul, destined to be together from the moment a slayer gains his magic. The mate is the only one who can tamper down a slayer's generally rough nature and balance them out."

Hellia bit her lip, trying to process the information. She glanced over to see the two men still standing there, seeming to be having their own conversation. She couldn't see their faces, but the way their shoulders were moving, she was able to tell that they were talking about _something_ out there. Could she really be something so permanent sounding to a man like that? Her mind went back to the conversation they'd had the night before, when he'd told her she was more special than she knew, was that what he'd meant? That she was his mate?

"Do you know why we all cheered when Sting announced that Cobra had found you?" Lucy asked, smiling gently when Hellia shook her head and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder reassuringly. "Because no one had ever believed he would find that one person who would bring out this side of him. Seeing you walk in wearing his jacket, to me, was one of the greatest moments of my life. I love him like a brother and I've hoped and prayed to the stars that he would one day find his most precious treasure, that shiny diamond among millions that would fit perfectly into his soul and make him whole." Lucy's warm brown eyes shone with mirth as she pulled the woman into an embrace, "Thank you for giving my brother a chance at true happiness when so much in his life has gone wrong."

Hellia's breath caught in her throat, unsure of what to say to such a speech. She looked over to the window once more to see Cobra looking over his shoulder at her, a soft look in his eye that she'd thought was always there. Now that she knew that that look was only for her, she wasn't sure what to think. Her mind was working on overtime, trying to figure out if this was all some strange dream triggered when she'd used her magic on herself during the Games and perhaps she were in a coma, her mind creating some event that would never truly happen otherwise.

That purple eye narrowed at her and she knew that she needed to stop thinking along those lines, just let things be what they were so that the man wouldn't be upset with her. She took a shaky breath and gave a small smile to the man, hoping to quell any discord that might be running through his own mind. She didn't need to doubt, even if this was a dream, she was sure that it was one of the best she would ever have in her life.

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Several hours and many more stores later found Hellia smiling easily with the blonde bombshell that was Lucy. The woman had this air about her that made the raven haired woman relax into her usual goofiness. She'd spent a lot of time laughing with the woman and chatting about anything and everything, learning about the other people in the guild and her newfound friend.

Lucy was apparently a Celestial Spirit Mage and the people she'd seen the night before were two of her spirits. Hellia had fawned over the adorable Plue when Lucy had spawned him and carried the small dog spirit in her arms as they walked into the hotel. Hellia smiled and waved when the two blondes walked away, letting she and Cobra head up to Cobra's room with the bags they carried- as well as a shiny new suitcase in a deep burgundy.

Hellia put the case onto the bed and sat down, kicking off her boots so she could sit cross-legged and watch the man as he tossed bags down onto the bed around her. The man hadn't allowed her to carry anything, only allowing her to pull the suitcase behind herself once Laxus and Lucy had split off from them and her hands were no longer full of cute little snowman dog spirit. He was somewhat chivalrous and it made her wonder if he was as dangerous as she'd thought the night before.

"I am," He spoke up, drawing Hellia from her thoughts.

"What?" She asked, not quite understanding what he was referring to.

"I'm dangerous," Cobra clarified, his look telling her that he was dead serious about it, though she still had a hard time believing him.

"Not to me," She said defiantly, craning her neck when he stuck a finger under her chin and tilted her head back to look him in the eye.

"How can you be so sure?" He asked with a low tone that sent heat to the pit of her stomach once again, a heat she'd forgotten he could cause with nothing more than a look. "How do you know I won't hurt you?"

Her breath halted in her throat for a second at his words, her mismatched eyes searching his face for any sign that he was bluffing. Had she been wrong? Had Lucy simply been instilling her with a false sense of security at the idea she was more important to this man than she really was? If so, why? Why would they be toying with _her_ , of all people, in such a way?

She shook away the thoughts and frowned up at the slayer, "You won't. You would have already. In the park, last night, at any point today, you could have simply done whatever you wanted, but you didn't. You won't hurt me, I know that much, even if I don't really understand why, yet."

This seemed to please the man as a smirk appeared on his face a moment before he pressed his lips to Hellia's. She whimpered, immediately drowning into the kiss and leaning up for more when he pulled away only to blink down at the velvet box that had been placed into her hands. She looked back up at him, hesitant to open the box as he seemed to be waiting anxiously for her to make a move.

Hellia opened the lid of the box and gasped slightly when she saw the necklace she'd been admiring earlier in the day with Lucy, the blue and yellow stones winking in the lighting of the room wonderfully. Her heart pounded in her chest as she ran her fingers over the jewelry, delicately brushing the beautiful piece with a look of wonder in her eyes.

"It reminded me of your eyes," Cobra said with an oddly giddy tone to his voice that had Hellia looking up at him once more to see a childish grin on his face. "I think that's why Lucy pointed it out to you," He continued, gesturing for her to hand the box back to him. He pulled the necklace from the box and moved to sit behind her on the bed.

Hellia closed her eyes when his hands brushed against her skin, the cold necklace being pulled against her as it was clipped around her throat snugly. She shivered when his lips brushed her bare shoulder and felt her hair let loose from it's pins to tumble freely down her back. Her eyes closed, relishing in the feeling as Cobra ran his lips up her neck before pulling away.

She looked down at herself, her hand coming up to touch the necklace a moment. No one had ever given her something like this before, had never given her such a gift that had likely cost so much to obtain. The fact that he'd compared the necklace to her eyes had brought her nearly to tears, having only ever heard comments from others about her being defective due to her eyes not matching.

Not thinking her actions through, Hellia turned quickly and threw herself into the stunned man's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck as she placed her lips over his. She tried to mimic the way he'd kissed her the night before, wanting to show him how much she appreciated the gifts- because, surely, he'd given her so much more than the object of a necklace- that he'd given her in the span of less than a day. She wanted so badly to let him know that she was grateful for him and adored everything he did, so sure that she would likely never be upset with anything he could do as there would likely be a good reason for it.

She delighted in the soft growl from the man as he turned her over onto her back and laid his body on top of hers, quickly dominating the kiss she'd initiated. One of his hands came up to cup the back of her neck, the other grasping her hip. The sounds coming from the slayer only served to raise her level of excitement and Hellia found herself remembering her dream, how he'd moved his hand beneath her shirt to splay across her back and-

Her mind went still when he did exactly what she was thinking, his palm caressing the skin of her stomach a moment before trailing to her back and rubbing the skin there a moment as he deepened the kiss, twining his tongue with hers and giving her more of that heady almond mocha taste that she was quickly becoming addicted to. Cobra's hand on her neck moved to trail down her throat, making her whimper when he traced her collarbone and lightly skim the edges of the skin left bare by her sweater.

"Please," Hellia whispered like a prayer, not knowing what she wanted but knowing that whatever he gave her would likely fulfil that soft and innocent request.

"No," Cobra said, dropping his head to her shoulder as he let out a shuddering breath. His hand came from under her back, allowing him to pull her small body up and into his lap as he sat up, his face still buried in her neck.

Hellia's mind was reeling and she felt like her body was on fire, every nerve ending alight with some unknown tingle that screamed for her want of… something. She couldn't put a name to it still, couldn't speak what exactly she was feeling and, so, couldn't understand why he'd so blatantly denied her whatever it was that her body and mind both craved, that glorious touch that sparked a need that only he'd ever caused to grow within her. Was there something wr-

"Finish that thought and you'll piss me off," He growled against her neck before raising his head to gaze intently at her. "There's nothing wrong with you," The slayer assured, cupping her face gently in his large hands. "I already told you that I don't want to hurt you. We'll take it slow and I'll show you exactly what it is that you want from me."

"But I-" She never got to finish her thought as he roughly grasped her hair and crushed his lips to hers again, completely wiping her mind clean of whatever it was that she was going to say next, whatever argument that had been on her tongue simply dying as that fire sparked once more.

Cobra sighed heavily, dropping his head back to her shoulder and taking a deep breath. "Fuck, that smells too fucking good," He practically groaned out.

Hellia didn't know what else to say, so she said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm sorry."

This brought a chuckle from the slayer as he gave a gentle nip to her neck that made her yip in surprise. "Don't be," He said, tracing his tongue over the spot he'd just bitten. "It's part of why I can't give you what you want, yet. I don't think I can hold back."

The woman pressed her lips together even as her eyes shut when he continued licking and sucking at the skin of her neck. If whatever she wanted was anything like he was doing now, he could sign her right the fuck up because he was driving her absolutely crazy. Her mind was blissfully focused only on whatever he was doing to her and his touch kept that fire stoked low in the pit of her stomach even as butterflies bundled there in fear of the unknown.

"We should get your clothes put in your bag and get ready to leave," Cobra sounded regretful as he moved her off of his lap and stood from the bed, quickly turning away from Hellia for a moment.

The flushed beauty ran a hand through her raven colored locks that spilled down her back and looked slightly rumpled. Her lips were just a tad swollen and there were the start of red marks on her neck from where Cobra had nibbled and sucked on her skin. She cast dazed eyes around the room and realized that most of the bags had been knocked to the floor during their… um… _activities_ , making the small woman move so she could grab all of them, crawling on her knees to pick up the fallen bags to place them back on the bed with her.

She froze when a hand ran up the outside of her thigh and chewed her lip, looking back to see Cobra with a heated look in his eye. A blush crept up her neck when she was gripped by the ankle and pulled backwards, the slayer turning her over to stare intensely down at her. He went back at her neck, bringing her frazzled mind right back to the thrashing storm it had been moments before, leaving her hot and needy as she whimpered.

"Don't you know not to tempt a dragon?" Cobra whispered huskily in her ear, making Hellia shiver involuntarily. "Pack up your bag and do it _without_ tempting me this time."

She let out a shuddering breath when the slayer once again released her, leaving her skin alight with fire and her heart hammering in her chest. The man was going to kill her, was all that was on Hellia's mind. He was going to simply devour her entirely all-too-willing body and she really wouldn't think twice about letting him do it.

Was he dangerous? There wasn't a doubt in her mind at this point as Hellia sat up and attempted to readjust her clothing and began to focus on the mindless task of removing tags and folding the new wardrobe that the man had bought her. He was dangerous if he could set her mind into a hazy whirlwind of emotion with nothing more than his touch- not even that, just simply looking at her would make Hellia's heart skip a beat.

She shook the thoughts away and made quick work of putting all of her new clothing into the large suitcase, grabbing out a thin scarf to tie around her hair as she waited. She wanted her hair off of her neck, but it seemed that Cobra liked it down, so Hellia had decided she needed a compromise. Tying the stark black scarf around her head to trail beneath her hair, she assured that the worst of the marks on her throat were covered by the strands of hair pulled forward, the necklace drawing some attention from any others.

She readjusted the sweater, not wanting anyone to see the marks on her back and hoping she would be able to afford a tattoo to cover- or, at least disguise- it at some point in the near future. No one would like seeing the marks that lay there and she didn't quite feel comfortable with anyone, especially Cobra, seeing the scars littering her skin there. Didn't really want him seeing any of her scars, actually, but that would be something she would think about at a later date as she was certain the questions would arise eventually.

Hellia tugged the hem of her sweater and tank top down before turning a smile at Cobra, who she fully realized had heard every thought in her head. She simply hoped he would give her time to adjust to everything before he questioned her about the scars on her skin and in her heart, simply leave well enough alone until she determined she was strong enough to come completely clean with him about what had truly happened to her in the past.

She wasn't a fool, she'd realized that he had scars of his own, it had been hard not to notice when the man had basically been stark naked before her just that morning. The fact of the matter was, she hadn't noticed them until after she'd been thinking about her own scars, the idea of them existing simply being lost in the void as she'd been drooling over the gorgeous mocha skin stretched taut over rippling muscles. She had a hard time believing that a body like that had been on top of hers multiple times already, with hints that there would be more.

"Your thoughts run in weird ways," Cobra commented, tossing his bag over the handle on Hellia's suitcase so he could pull both while he put a possessive arm over her shoulders.

"I'm… sorry?" Hellia hesitantly replied, not quite sure what he meant.

"You went from drooling over me, to appraising yourself, to thinking about your scars, then went to thinking about my muscles, to my scars, to end up drooling over me again," He explained with a light chuckle and tug to her hair. "Your mind runs in these weird fucking elaborate circles, always looping around to the beginning again before you end up darting off into a completely different direction. I've really never heard anything like that."

"Oh," Her nose scrunched up in thought and she hardly noticed when they approached the other members of the guild, all talking excitedly to one another as they awaited the train. She was pulled from her thoughts when the pink haired man that had been sitting next to Lucy at the bar the previous night stood before her, staring directly at her with an odd expression on his face. "Um…" She inched behind Cobra a bit, wary of this new face.

"Fuck off, Matchstick," Cobra snapped irritably with a coldness that Hellia had never heard him use before.

"She accepted the gift," The man stated, his eyes glued to the jewelry hanging around Hellia's neck.

In a moment, another man with long raven black hair and piercings littering his body had joined the first one, both staring intently at the necklace that Hellia wore. She felt extremely uncomfortable, although someone pulled towards these other two men, it was highly confusing for the small woman and she felt the urge to step forward until Cobra tightened his hold on her.

"Gods," Cobra grumbled. "Yes, she accepted the gift. No, I haven't explained jack shit to her. Fuck off before you scare off _my_ fucking treasure, you assholes."

They all seemed to hesitate, the pinkette and the one with piercings looking like they wanted to say something more but turned back around reluctantly when Cobra's glare hardened. When they got a distance away, Cobra pulled Hellia into his arms and nuzzled her hair, that purring sound making another appearance. She awkwardly stood as others around them looked at the scene, the only ones not staring being the two men she figured were Dragon Slayers.

Glancing over, Hellia caught Lucy's eye and the blonde simply smiled at her, mouthing the word 'later' to her and making the darker haired woman sigh in relief. Knowing that she had someone who would explain things to her made Hellia a bit more comfortable with whatever was going on between herself and Cobra, especially because it looked like he wasn't going to be filling her in any time soon.

"I will," He mumbled into her hair. "As soon as we get back to my place and I can make sure those asshats aren't going to make a random appearance to bother us."

Hellia was unsure if he meant the whole guild or just the other slayers, the latter being the more obvious option due to whatever was going on before. She would appreciate if the man was honest with her about this stuff, but Hellia also knew that if she truly was his mate, it would be nice for her to have another woman in her shoes to talk to about things that a man might not think to explain to her- like, perhaps, why the fuck he was still holding her and smelling her hair in public?!

"Possession thing," Cobra mumbled once more, finally letting her go to walk with her onto the train. "Couple of them are either unmated. Instincts told me to make sure they knew who you belonged to and I'm pretty sure you'd rather me hold you like that rather than fuck you right there on the train platform."

He easily caught her around the waist when she choked on her next breath and her feet fumbled, nearly sending her foot down between the train and platform, her face just missing the grip bar as he pulled her into his chest. Hellia took a moment to collect herself, her face a brilliant scarlet as she let him direct her to where she would be sitting with him. Curling up on the seat with her knees to her chest, Hellia gazed out the window as she willed herself not to simply die in a puddle of embarrassment at the man's brash attitude.

Her eyes went wide with surprise when the train gave a lurch and her lap was suddenly filled with a large lump of sickly looking dragon slayer male.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N;** _Again, the response on this story has been amazing! I'm so happy to see everyone enjoying it! Special thanks again to **Missy 63** , **Animegirl549** , and **Tiernank** for your awesome feedback!_

 _Before this chapter, I would like to let you all know that Hellia's name is pronounced as He-Lee-uh. It's Greek in origin and you find out the meaning NEXT CHAPTER as well as what "mi alma" means and why Cobra calls her that... So! Without further ado... Enjoy!_

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 ** _Word Count:_** _4,523_

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Cobra looked like death and Hellia felt worry build up in her as she looked down at the man currently sprawled across the bench with his head in her lap. Her mismatched eyes looked up when Lucy sat across from her and she ended up in a similar position when Laxus flopped down with his posture mimicking that of his fellow slayer with his head in the blonde's lap. It would have been amusing, but Hellia glanced around and noted that the four other men of their magic type were all appearing to be sickly in some way, some with their faces out the windows as the train left the station.

Her eyes went back to Lucy, clouded with confusion until she saw the woman running her fingers through her mate's hair absentmindedly and looking out the window. Hellia looked down and bit her lip, trying to decide if doing the same would bother Cobra. His hair was thick and she knew it was soft but would he be okay with her touching it right now when he looked to be on the verge of death?

"Just… Do it," He practically begged, turning his head into her stomach and wrapping his arms around the woman's thin waist.

Hellia reached up tentatively so she could run her fingers through the man's maroon locks with her nails scraping along his scalp. She'd never felt hair quite as thick as his was, it made her mildly jealous, though she was sure she wouldn't keep hers quite as long if she did have hair that thick, it would be rather impractical and annoying to keep up with. On Cobra, though, the thickness was probably one of her new favorite things as her fingers toyed with the ends.

It seemed to help him as he sighed and she heard that purring come from him again, a sound that was mimicked again by the man on the other side of the compartment. Hellia found herself smiling softly and looking out the window, her fingers moving in a subconscious way at this point as she let her mind wander through the events of the last two days.

The sun was starting to go down, the sunset visible from the side of the train they'd been seated on so she could see the wonderful oranges and pinks that signified the sun giving up it's reign in the sky. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed her magic worked so much better when the sun hung high in the blue sky, if there were clouds, it would be questionable, if it was night and raining, she knew better than to even attempt to use her magic.

Come to think of it, that was likely the reason she'd failed in her battle with Laxus the day before. There had been an overcast sky that day, signifying the incoming rain that had pelted her in the evening and her magic had been reluctant to actually come forth, needing to be forced even in the first moments of the battle when she'd drawn out her coin. Had the sun been high, she might have been luckier in her draw and gotten the man's counter higher than the paltry two that he'd ended up with.

Though, it didn't explain why her Wheel of Fortune had produced a fucking wagon of all things. The man had been knocked on his ass by the last attack she'd landed and that was when the wheel had landed on the wagon. At first, she'd thought it was for carrying her belongings as though the Three Fates had known she would be leaving her guild that day. Now, though, she let herself think through the battle and everything since then.

Looking back down at the softly sleeping slayer in her lap and then at the larger one across the compartment, her brow furrowed in thought. The others seemed to have fallen asleep- or in the pink haired male's case, knocked unconscious- and were all still that strange green shade that signified sickness. It made her think about what they had in common as her fingers gently ran through Cobra's hair when a thought occurred to her.

"Are Dragon Slayers susceptible to motion sickness?" Hellia asked softly, not wanting to disturb the snoozing slayers, mismatched eyes raising to look at Lucy for answers.

The blonde smiled fondly down at her own slayer and gave a tug to his hair that seemed loving. "They really are," She giggled out. "Isn't it funny? Their magic is for killing giant reptiles, yet, their biggest weakness is transportation. I sometimes wonder about that." She shook her head and pulled the soundpods off of her mate's ears, tucking them into the man's coat pocket securely.

Hellia pursed her lips, so, that was what the wagon had been for. If she'd known that information, she would have been able to catch the man in it as he'd fallen from the sky on his last attack and she possibly could have won by torturing him with his greatest weakness. But, the fact remained that she hadn't known that information and hadn't thought through what the Wheel had given her to win the battle.

Usually that power was pretty straightforward, the objects it gave her were ones that would always allow her to win her battle in one move. That time, if she'd known about the weakness, she could have won, but her mind had been too busy thinking about the bullshit going on that she'd overlooked it and hadn't been able to figure out why the Wheel of Fortune had given her a wagon of all things for a fight.

She needed to learn how to better predict the outcomes of her fights, needed to do research on other magics so that if something like that ever happened again she wouldn't be a sitting duck. Maybe her new guild would have a library where she could learn, or maybe even someone in the guild would have access to the information she needed. It would be nothing for her to learn everything she needed quickly due to that second ability she figured no one knew about, so she simply needed access to the information to get started.

"So, do you have any other questions?" Lucy asked casually with a friendly smile.

"Oh," Hellia shook her head clear of her thoughts and returned the smile. "Um… Why did the other Dragon Slayers act that way and worry about my necklace?" One hand came up to fiddle with said necklace as she spoke, feeling warmth in her chest as she did so that made her impossibly happy for some strange reason.

"I have something like that, too," The blonde replied, flashing the pair of earrings that hung from her lobes with black gems surrounded by smaller rainbow stones in the shape of a star. "The slayer infuses them with their magic. It's the first step in mating and, if the mate accepts the gift, the slayer will begin amassing a hoard that he or she believes their mate would like along with creating a nest. Their pride is easily bruised during the giving of those gifts, so, if you want to keep him happy, you're going to need to watch your reactions as I'm sure some of the gifts might be a bit strange."

"Strange?" Hellia questioned with mild concern about that.

Lucy nodded with a cheeky grin, "Laxus found out I liked wine so, in his weird slayer mind, he made the link to glasses so I have about fifty wineglasses from all over the country. Gray dropped one and Laxus flipped his shit on him." She covered her mouth on another giggle at the muffled 'oi' across the train. "Some of it can be useful, though."

"How so?"

"Like, he's found me another three keys and was just as excited for me to contract them as I myself was," She explained further. "Or, how he contracted the best magical clothing designer to make my clothing as it was always constantly being ruined by jobs, Natsu, everything…" She trailed off on an exasperated sigh. "Anyways, anything Cobra amasses in his hoard for you will be something that reminds him of you and he'll only show you when he deems it complete. The accepting of the necklace is basically just you showing him that you accept him and it gives his instincts the go-ahead to begin the building of his nest and hoard for you."

"Okay…" Hellia was desperately trying to follow along with this information, wanting to activate that secret magic but also not wanting to startle anyone. She understood that accepting the necklace meant a lot more to Cobra than she had realized at the time, but that didn't explain the other slayers' reactions.

When she vocalized this, Lucy laughed lightly and waved her hand. "It's a dragon thing," She began. "Mates are actually a subjective term. We aren't born _specifically_ for one slayer, but for all of them because we would actually fit with any and all of the slayers. Take Yukino, for instance, she is mated to both Sting and Rogue. I'm mated to Laxus, but I was almost mated to Natsu as well. Gajeel hasn't claimed a mate yet, neither has Natsu, they are both searching for a mate and had to be scared off by Cobra otherwise they would have tried to create a co-mating bond with you. Cobra giving you the necklace simply told them that you are clearly claimed by him and that they can't touch you unless you choose it."

"That's… confusing," The Luck Mage said, looking down at the man in her lap as she thought and wishing Lucy had told her this earlier in the day. "So, if I chose, I could be mated to more than one?"

"Yep," Lucy nodded when Hellia looked back up at her. "Cobra's instincts would be to simply obey that choice, only until the mating mark is set. Natsu only lost out because Laxus marked me as soon as he found all of this out, he didn't want to share. If you were to accept a second gift, even if it was by accident, you would be opening yourself up to another mate. Yukino and I won't let that happen unless you tell us you want it, though, because we have both been there before."

"What would happen if I opened myself up to being a mate for a second slayer?" She asked curiously.

"Well," The blonde chewed her lip. "I think Yukino would better be able to answer that, as she was tricked by Sting to accepting him as well, but when it comes down to it, the two slayers instinctively begin to work together. They combine the um… meta-hoards? I think that's the word that I was told. Their meta-hoards are simply small things they've accumulated over the years that are somewhat open to interpretation by any mate, little baubles that the slayer simply collects for any reason at all. Laxus enjoyed collecting small glass figurines, they're everywhere in our house."

She paused a moment, smiling when her slayer shifted slightly before settling back down. "So, they would combine their meta-hoards into one and then begin working out how to go about their hoard together and determine, together, when it is complete and ready for their prospective mate to see," Lucy continued softly, lowering her voice a bit as those around them began to stir from their naps as the announcer stated they were nearing Magnolia. "If having two mates is something you're interested in, you can ask Yukino more, but, if not, all you need to do is let me know now and we'll keep an eye on those mateless fools so that you don't end up tricked into it."

Hellia chewed her lip, thinking on that for a moment. She would fit in to being the mate to the other two as well, making them both as happy as she apparently made Cobra. Would that be so bad? From what she'd seen of Cobra, it would honestly be almost too easy, but she was still trying to figure out her way in the world and she really didn't want to worry about another man added to the one who had forced his way into her life.

Finally, she shook her head, "No. I know it would likely help them, but I'd rather just be able to focus on Cobra."

"Good," Said slayer's voice rumbled against her stomach. "Didn't want to hafta kill them before they could gift you anything."

Hellia blanched at the remark just before she jumped a bit in surprise as the train stopped at the station and people began gathering their belongings. "Y-You wouldn't do that," She watched as the man simply got up off of the bench and grabbed their bags from the overhead compartment. "Right?" She prompted as she moved into the isle to give Lucy and Laxus room to stand up.

"He would," A gruff voice said from behind her, making the nervous woman jump a bit and nearly topple backwards before Cobra dropped their bags to snag her around the waist. The man who had spoken covered his mouth behind a snicker and his red eyes sparkled with amusement. "Watch your footing there, Coins."

Cobra growled threateningly, making Hellia turn in his arms to press herself into his chest. "Please, don't," She requested softly. "I already said I only wanted you," The small woman added on, hoping it would calm him a bit.

The tactic worked as Cobra moved her to the other side of him, having her walk in front with him being a barrier in between her and the raven haired male who had startled her. She reached down with one hand, keeping her grip on Cobra's sleeve with his arm still around her waist as they exited the crowded train and onto the platform.

"Alright, brats!" The Master yelled from his perch on a large cart being pulled by a red haired woman. "We're having a guild party tomorrow to celebrate! Head home and get unpacked!"

Hellia smiled when the whole group of mages cheered, the crowd dispersing as they all made their way to their respective homes. She looked up at Cobra as a frown formed, where would she go? She didn't have money for a hotel, no home to go to…

Cobra scoffed at her, rolling his eye as he drug the woman along beside him. "You're coming with me, mi alma," He stated firmly.

"But, what about-"

"You aren't dealing with a typical slayer," He said, squeezing her hip to cut off her words. "You'll see the meta-hoard now, including the nest."

Hellia pursed her lips but decided that she'd do better than to argue with the man. It was obvious that he knew she had nowhere else to go and she was grateful for everything he'd done for her. Hell, if she could have, she'd have rubbed this whole thing in her ex-Master's face for telling her that there was no way she'd ever find someone who would care about her. If Cobra didn't care, he'd have left her there in the fucking rain with a missing boot and a lonely heart.

"Now you're getting it," Cobra chuckled as he led her through the streets of Magnolia.

The woman looked around herself, taking in the lovely architecture of the city and the wonderful trees that bloomed beautifully with the flowers of the town's namesake. The aroma was nearly heady in the damp air, telling Hellia that the rains had, indeed, passed through here at some point before their arrival, especially with the puddles around and the scent of rich soil in the wind. It was… peaceful.

She sighed contentedly, leaning her head on Cobra's chest a bit as they walked and enjoying the silent moment in time. Sure, rubbing her ex-Master's face in it would be entertaining, but that would be impossible at the moment and likely wouldn't grant her the satisfaction she wanted. The fact of the matter being that she simply wanted to show that woman that nothing she did would bring her down and that Hellia was going to make a new, and better, life for herself without Griffin's Claws to berate her every move.

Maybe, if she were to get a handle on her magic and prevent it from being as unpredictable as it was, she would be able to compete in the Games next year as a member of Fairy Tail. The thought brought a smile to her lips and she felt herself get the urge to make a bet of some sort. It would be easy for her to talk to the Master, so, if she could talk him into what she was thinking…

"He'll agree to it," Cobra told her assuring her thoughts. "Word it the right way and the Geezer will be all over that shit. He's all about redemption and standing up for what you believe in."

"Would you-"

"Like I'm gonna let you leave me out," The slayer snorted as he led her down a dirt path that led somewhat out of town. "I'll help you in any way I can, mi alma."

The lights of the city faded a bit as they walked further down the path and into the forest until, just as the light completely faded, Hellia was able to make out a large cabin silhouette in the pale moonlight. She wasn't sure what it looked like fully from the outside, but imagined it was beautiful as she followed Cobra into a foyer and the place smelled like… well… a home, she thought so, anyways, never having had a real home.

The light came on and she smiled truly as she saw plants of all kinds nearly covering every surface. Vines twisted around a wooden bannister that followed a set of stairs to the second floor, pots of some plants she knew, some she had no words to describe, were hung on walls, sitting on tables, creating a lush environment. Her fingers trailed over the red petals of a beautiful bird of paradise, the petals feeling like silk against her skin.

"Your meta-hoard is plant life," Hellia said, turning to Cobra as he threw his keys into a dish near a small poppy plant. She grinned when she made the connection between the plants and his magic, finding it oddly endearing that his magic being poison, that was made to destroy, but his passion being plants, something that brought with it new life.

"You like it," He responded, flashing her a crooked grin that had her nearly melting into a puddle on the floor.

"They're beautiful," Hellia agreed, smiling as he tugged the scarf from her hair and hung it with his coat near the door.

She followed behind Cobra as he made his way through the house, surprised when, instead of on the second floor, his master bedroom was on the first. It did make sense as there were more vines creeping up the four-poster king bed and creating a beautiful canopy near the ceiling where they fed off of the light given by two enormous skylights. The chandelier that lit the space was lit with magical lacrama that were embedded into a large hanging plant that she didn't know the name of but admired nonetheless.

The home was like some secret garden and she was quite enjoying it, kicking off her boots near his before she wandered the room, letting her hands trail across the waxy leaves and silky petals of the plants. Mismatched eyes looked up when she heard that telltale purr coming from the man, the sound bringing a wide smile to her face. That sound was fast becoming her favorite and she wanted to learn the best ways to bring it out as she was certain if she did that she would make him purr for her any time her heart desired.

"I'm the one that's gonna make you purr," The slayer practically growled as he took two long strides to approach her and gipped her hips tightly.

Hellia gave a yelp of surprise when he lifted her into the air, her arms and legs instinctively wrapping around him to keep from falling. She was kept from saying anything as Cobra used one hand on her back to brace her too him and the other to grip the hair in the back of her head so that he could kiss her. She could tell he was moving, but her eyes had drifted shut at the possessive nature of the kiss she was experiencing, her mind wiped clean of anything but the sweet almond mocha taste of Cobra that demanded to be focused on.

She did, however, notice when her ass hit something hard and she opened her mismatched eyes when Cobra pulled away from her to find herself in a bathroom. Not just any bathroom, the most gorgeous bathroom she'd ever even imagined. It looked like a rainforest spring with a giant tub that was surrounded by more plants and looked to be fed by a waterfall mechanism that flowed the water down gray rocks that even covered the outside of the porcelain and made it easy to step into the massive tub.

Cobra had walked towards a shower that took Hellia's breath away. Sure, the tub was nice, but, it wasn't practical if one weren't able to spend more than an hour bathing. The shower, however, was gorgeous as water fell from small openings in the ceiling and more vines trailed up the outer sides, leaving gaps in the crystal clear glass to allow the inside to be seen easily. The water caused the plant smell to increase and steam quickly began to somewhat fog up the room full of rich greens, grays, and browns with bursts of color in the form of flowers.

In almost no time at all, Cobra was back to where she sat on the counter and resumed kissing her, his hands moving between them to unbutton her sweater. Hellia felt butterflies in her stomach again and just when she felt like she was going to panic as her sweater slid down her shoulders, Cobra softened his kisses, bringing her heart back to a slightly more steady pace and had the butterflies simply fading away. Apparently pleased that she was no longer beginning to panic, Cobra began to slowly push the edges of her tank top up, his fingertips brushing along the smooth skin beneath it and bringing a soft sigh from her lips.

Dimly, Hellia remembered something about him saying he wouldn't be able to hold back if he gave her what he wanted, so, why…?

"Just because I can't have what I want, doesn't mean I can't give you something," He mumbled between kisses as he trailed his lips down her jaw to her neck and collarbone.

Hellia whimpered when his teeth grazed her skin, any further thoughts simply melting away at the feelings he brought forth from her. That fire sparked in her stomach as his hands kneaded the flesh of her pinched waist, moving a bit higher with each passing moment. The innocent beauty was unsure of herself as she raised her hands to twist her fingers in his hair, freezing at a growl that emanated from him when she accidentally pulled a bit.

"I-"

"You didn't do anything wrong," The slayer assured, raising his head to kiss her a bit more fiercely than before and cutting off the argument. "Don't think. Just feel, mi alma."

The raven haired woman stiffened when she felt his hands touch her scars on her back and that fire burnt out, shame beginning to take hold as she froze completely. Cobra pulled away from her and Hellia averted her gaze, not wanting to look him in the eye to see the disgust she knew she was going to find there. She couldn't help the tears that pricked her eyes, getting ready to get up so she could leave.

Cobra pulled her to the edge of the counter, waiting until she stood up and turned the woman away from him to face the mirror as he ran his hands beneath her tank top. Hellia's stomach churned when he lifted her shirt up and off, leaving her standing there in the emerald green bra that Lucy's spirit had supplied her with. Her hair was swept over one shoulder and she nearly sobbed when she felt Cobra's fingers tracing over the scarring she knew was there on her pale skin.

She'd looked in the mirror over her shoulder before to see the puckered pink markings on her back that lay just low enough for her to wear tank tops but high enough that Cobra hadn't felt them before. They told anyone who saw them what she truly was and it took everything within herself not to collapse to her knees in tears at that moment when she heard Cobra say it aloud, his tone filled with the disgust she knew was headed her way.

"You're a half-Pixie."

"Yes."

Hellia knew better than to lie, especially to this man, it would be futile especially with the evidence there on her back. No one had seen the markings before, no one human other than the one who had given her the markings, anyways. She knew that she would need to explain her heritage to him, but couldn't find the words as she choked out a sob and had to brace herself onto the counter to prevent from falling to her knees.

She vaguely became aware of arms wrapping around her and turning her towards the man that she'd become far too attached to in such a short amount of time. Her head was forced to raise and she looked up at Cobra with watery eyes, unsure of what he was doing and why he hadn't thrown her out yet.

"I'm not going to do that, mi alma," He said gently. "Everyone has a dark past and I know there is a lot more to yours than you've told. Just think and I'll listen, you won't even have to speak."

Hellia kept her mismatched eyes locked with Cobra's, letting herself lapse back into the past and giving him the full story of just who- and what- she was.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N;** _A very special Thank You to_ _ **Missy 63** for reminding me about my update today! You've been a dear with your response to this story and it's people like you who make me love this stupid creative brain of mine! Also, thank you to the commenters last chapter: **animegirl549** , **BukakkeGirl** , and **LaluHeart777**._

 **TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER! _This chapter includes hints of rape, child abuse, and death._**

* * *

 _ **Word Count:** 4,401_

* * *

 ** _{Early x772}_**

* * *

"Get the Queen out of here!" A small man shouted as another violent blast shook the forest village to it's core.

Everything was in ruin around the people who stood much shorter than average people, their hair all matching in the same dark black shade that appeared almost blue in the sunlight. The remaining few who lived surrounded a woman who was trembling with fear, her mismatched eyes watching as her home was destroyed. There was nothing she, or any of her people, could do to save their piece of paradise. They would all die here.

The woman shook off the hand that reached out to her as a newfound determination lit in her eyes, turning her fury onto the one who had grabbed at her. "I will not see my people slain by these humans!" She shouted, her long hair rising as magic gathered around herself. Her hands moved above her head as she looked straight towards the remnants of her people, tears threatening to fall as the sunlight began to filter in a strange conical shape through the circle her thumbs and forefingers made above her head.

"Neveah! Please!" Another man shrieked, trying to break through the edges of a dome that began to form around the group. His fist slammed into the barrier in desperation as he willed it to break down, to allow him to get to the woman who had taken him as her husband, her king, her love. He repeated his pleas as he pounded on the golden barrier that began to crystallize from the peak at the very top, his cries growing more and more desperate.

"I am sending you to a new continent," Neveah stated calmly even as the crystallization left only a small hole for her to see the agonized look on her beloved's face. "Rebuild our people, Malachai. Lead them to those in the north of where I send you, they will help on your road to recovery and, perhaps, you will one day find another who will love you as I have… Pixie's Parlor!"

She closed her eyes as a single tear fell and the dome completely became encased. With a sweeping motion of her hands towards the ground, Neveah pushed every remaining ounce of magic from within herself towards the dome in a brilliant arc of light. The dome shattered, the glittering gold crystal spread into the air to leave nothing but sparkling dust in it's wake and, where the gathered Pixies had once stood, lay barren ground aside from a perfect circle of smoothed stones and land that would never again grow plant life.

Neveah turned when she heard shouts from behind her and fell to the ground as a large weighted net was cast over her form. She didn't attempt to struggle, merely glared up at the masked man who crouched down to the woman who appeared to be no more than fifteen years old in size and face. He pulled her from the nets and held Neveah by the collar of her flowing gold dress, knocking her pointed white hat to the ground as he did so.

"Where did the other kids go?" The man demanded of her, slapping her clear across the face when the woman simply glared at him. "Where?!"

"Far away from the likes of you."

"Did any of the rest survive?" Another voice said as they were joined by a smaller form dressed similarly in black robes and the same white mask that obscured the face.

"Just this one," The man holding Neveah stated, shaking her by the collar.

"Toss her into the carriage, then," The second man ordered. "She looks young enough to make for many years of work."

* * *

 _ **{2 months later}**_

* * *

Neveah sighed heavily as she lifted the rocks off of the pile before her and turned to place them into a wooden cart. She sometimes wondered how her people were doing, if they had found their sister tribe across the country. Maybe Malachai had already found another he could grow to marry.

That thought caused her to laugh humorlessly, shaking her head as she lifted the arms of the cart to take it through the caves, she knew the man would never be able to give his heart to another. It seemed she'd messed up somehow as she found her hair being gripped and she was forcefully lifted off of the ground, tears welling up in her mismatched eyes and her nails clawing at the hand that held her.

"Find something amusing, little bitch?" The man with a scarred face sneered at Neveah, her nose wrinkling slightly when his putrid breath wafted over her.

Neveah knew better than to speak back to the man, quickly schooling her expression and dropping her hands so as not to make things worse for herself. She felt the sting of being held nearly two feet above the ground supported only by her raven locks that had been cut off to her ears nearly as soon as she'd been brought to this strange place. No expression was shown as the man shook her, trying to gain some kind of reaction, though he got none.

"Nothing to say?" He questioned, a sickening grin spreading across his face. "I bet I can get some kind of reaction out of you, and I'm going to make the rest of these brats watch."

The woman's eyes went wide when she realized what he meant, resuming her clawing at the hand in her hair as her heart hammering violently in her chest. She continued to fight for all she was worth, her screams echoing throughout the cave as the rest of those enslaved watched, horrified, as the woman had the remainder of the fire extinguished from her eyes and she lay on the ground with evidence of her abuse dripping between her thighs.

* * *

 ** _{9 months later, Summer Solstice, x773}_**

* * *

"Shh…" One of the older women hushed, wiping the sweat from Neveah's brow as another spread her legs. "Don't let them hear you."

Neveah whimpered through the cloth that had been forced between her clenched teeth, gripping the hands between hers with all of her might as another contraction swept through her. Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to keep as quiet as possible, fearing for her life as she knew that if she were heard by a guard, she would be killed swiftly and without mercy.

"Push," The woman between her legs ordered.

The small woman did as instructed and pushed as hard as she was able to, feeling her energy becoming sapped. It took only three more contractions until she felt the pressure in her back become relieved, the three women who had helped her all sighing as the worst had passed.

Concern filled the raven haired beauty as she leaned forward, spitting out the cloth and her heart clenched in her chest. "Is the baby…?" She couldn't bring herself to ask the question, fear filling her heart.

"She's alive," The brunette informed her, passing a bundle to the new mother. "Yours is a quiet one."

Neveah cuddled the small child to her chest and she moved the cloth to the side to gaze down at a near mirrored-image of herself. Bi-colored eyes blinked up at her curiously as the newborn studied the new creature in her vision causing a slow smile to spread over the mother's face as she held her offspring.

"What will you name her?"

"Hellia," Neveah replied immediately, letting the baby grip at her finger. "It means 'sun ray'. She will be the brightest light for me in this place."

* * *

 ** _{x776, Before Jellal Takes Over}_**

* * *

A girl with raven hair smiled broadly as she lifted rocks into a cart, humming a catchy tune to herself as she used a small hammer to break up the rocks in front of herself. The song grew forgotten as she placed the small pieces into the cart beside herself and shoved another large rock into the space of the first.

She sighed a bit as she looked down at her palm, wishing that she had something more than the hammer to play with. As if her thoughts had been heard, a shiny gold coin formed in her hand, glinting in the low lighting and making her giggle with glee. She began to twirl it in her fingers, enjoying how warm the metal felt compared to the cold in the cave.

The girl stood up, quickly running across the cave to where a raven haired woman was lifting larger rocks into a cart. She tugged on the woman's clothing, trying to catch her attention. "Mommy! Look!"

The woman turned and her mismatched eyes went wide with shock. "No!" She gasped in horror, quickly closing the small girl's hand around the coin. "Put it back, Hellia, and don't play with this again."

"But mommy!" The girl cried in despair, unhappy that her mother wasn't as excited about the find as she was. "I like the coin!"

"What coin?" Both dark haired women turned to see a scarred man grinning maliciously at the two, his eyes locked onto the mother's hands wrapped around Hellia's smaller ones. "What are you hiding?"

When the man made a lunge for the small girl, the woman pushed her behind herself, shielding her with her own body. "Hellia, run," The woman ordered, a bright gold light molding around herself.

Hellia, not really knowing what was happening, ran to hide in the long, twisting caves, cradling her new prize to her chest. She could still hear her mother and the man fighting, shouted questions of what she was as she shouldn't have been able to use her magic there, and then screams. The girl covered her ears, desperately trying to stop the ringing in her ears and make it all go away.

 _ **'Go to her.'**_

Hellia looked around, trying to find the source of the whisper, but couldn't. Instead, she ran from her hiding spot, back to where she'd left her mother, only to find her, and the man, on the ground in a pool of red. There was so much, too much flowing out of her mother's body as she wheezed in her breaths.

"Mama?" The child asked as tears welled up in her throat and she crouched down next to the prone form of her mother.

"Hellia," The woman rose her hand to brush the child's cheek, leaving a smear of red. A golden ball formed in the bloodied hand, swirling with some force that the girl simply could not understand. "I love you… Memory Bequeathal."

Hellia dropped her coin, not noticing it disappear in a shower of golden dust as her head throbbed forcefully and her hands clutched at her hair. She saw what had happened to her mother, what she'd done, though her young mind couldn't quite understand what it was. She knew that the man her mother had protected her from was her father, but didn't know why he would try to hurt either of them. Most of all, Hellia knew what her mother was and why she was here in this place, the knowledge bringing a gasp from her small lungs.

When the images stopped, Hellia looked at her mother and the tears began to fall at the sight of her face frozen in an expression of a small smile, eyes unseeing as they were locked onto the young girl. "Mama?" Hellia began shaking the woman, desperation filling her as she didn't speak. "Mama! Please! What is a Pixie?! What am I?! Don't leave me! Mama! MAMA!"

Her voice echoed through the cave as more and more people came to be in the main room, their attention locked onto the scene before them. The woman had succeeded in killing a guard, had used magic to do so as many had felt the burst of it. They were confused as the girl shouted about a creature that many had believed to be extinct, not knowing why the three year old was screaming about it.

"So, we have Bruscar in our caves," A malicious voice stated as Hellia was gripped forcefully by the hair. "We need to make sure any who looks at her knows exactly what she is."

* * *

{Several Months Later, The Day Of The Rebellion}

* * *

Hellia ran as fast as she could, her feet sliding on the wet rocks as she reached the opening of the cave that led to the ocean. She'd come here in secret sometimes to practice her magic, knowing that she had to be careful. She had learned so much in the past few months since her mother's death, had matured far beyond her years as she made sure to understand the cues from others around her.

She'd heard of an escape and saw others head this way, a group of kids being led by a man she had seen working in the caves with her mother at some point. Sunlight burst into her eyes, causing Hellia to blink several times until she saw the boat far in the distance already. She fell to her knees, realizing that they had already gotten away and had taken with them her chance at freedom. The cold spray of the saltwater hit her and she was thankful that her back had finally healed after several months, the cuts having scarred over after being reopened so very many times.

"Child, come," A feminine voice ordered, drawing the girl from her shell of despair as she looked up at the woman before herself. "We must leave now."

Hellia felt hope rekindle in her chest as she took the hand of the sandy haired woman, following her across the slippery rocks and into a boat. She crouched down, covering her ears when an explosion sounded and debris flew at them as a wall of the tower was destroyed. Her small body was pelted with small rocks and she let out a whimper, not liking this and wanting to simply be far away from here.

Several more people joined them until the boat shoved off, quickly being taken by the waves away from the only place Hellia had ever known. The tower slowly faded into the distance and she felt something floating in her chest, a strange feeling she had no name for as that horrible place completely disappeared from her vision.

"What is your name, child?"

Hellia looked back up at the sandy haired woman, unsure how she should act towards her, she could be an enemy. No, she wouldn't be if she'd helped her to escape. "H-Hellia," The three year old stammered, tugging on the rags that stood to serve as clothing.

"You will be staying with me, Hellia."

* * *

 _ **{Present}**_

* * *

Her breath came out in ragged gasps as tears flowed out of mismatched eyes, blinking as Hellia lowered her lashes to look away from Cobra. She didn't want to see the look of disgust that she knew would be on his face, didn't want to see how much he hated her now that he knew the truth about herself. It was far too hard for her to keep the tears from falling as she remembered her mother dying nearly in her arms because of her, or the pain of having that horrible word carved into her back. She had known that Cobra would know eventually, but she had hoped for more other than this intense silence from him at the revelations, had actually hoped for more time before telling him.

Bruscar. It was such a simple word, Bruscar. Meaning "trash", it was a derogatory term used to describe someone who had been born to a Pixie who had been impregnated by a human. In ancient times, as she'd learned, these people were described as elves. They were much smaller than most humans, though larger than their Pixie brethren and their magic was a combination of the two species'.

Though a Bruscar was inherently connected to nature, they mostly specialized in one aspect of this rather than all of them as a pureblood would. Hellia had ended up with her Luck Magic as it had manifested as a balance between nature, linking her to the Three Fates of old and giving her a secret magic that allowed her to embrace more of her Pixie side.

She could, and has, use the Pixie magic of Memory Bequeathal to memorize anything caught in the magic, books being read in the span of a second and the information forever instilled into her brain. This was how she'd gained her knowledge of the world in secret from her ex-Master, by using the spell while cleaning the guild's library one day when she'd been sure she was alone. To her despair, all of the books that had contained information on magic had been locked away in the Master's personal library as she'd known that Hellia had wanted to learn about it. And so, she had wasted her efforts, having only learned about fairy tales, laws, and other standard information that even the average citizen could have learned. That didn't make the information any less valuable to the knowledge-seeking woman.

Hellia had also taught herself the Pixie's Parlor spell that her mother had wielded to save the remainder of her people. She had wanted to try and find the rest of the Pixies, but she knew that they wouldn't accept her and had, instead, stuck with her life among humans, feeling like an outcast as she had gained clumsiness that had been an unfortunate alteration to the mischievous nature of the Pixie species and magic that was hit or miss. She was… pathetic.

"Not pathetic," Cobra corrected, finally speaking and drawing her eyes up to look at the man with questions flooding her mind. He hugged Hellia to his chest a bit tighter, "You're unique. The finest of diamonds in a pile of coal. The most precious of treasures that I won't be giving up."

"S-So…" Hellia took a deep, shuddering breath. "Y-You aren't going to g-get rid of me?"

"I already staked my claim," He said with a smirk. "And I'm a selfish bastard. You're mine, mi alma. I wasn't disgusted with you, I was disgusted with the man who did something like that to you. I'd kill him if your mother hadn't gotten the chance."

Hellia wet her lips before pressing them together as she felt her fears be swept away like dust in the wind. He wasn't going to kick her out onto the street, wasn't going to get rid of her. She was… elated, ecstatic, in awe.

"What does that mean?" She asked quietly, her eyes searching Cobra's face as she questioned him.

"Mi alma?" When she nodded, Cobra grinned and pressed his forehead to hers, breathing deeply. "Mi alma means 'my soul'. It's short for 'mi fragmento de alma', fragment of my soul."

This brought a small smile to her lips as Hellia cupped Cobra's face in her hands and pressed her lips softly to his. This man was absolutely perfect and she didn't know what amount of fortune the Three Fates had given to her to deserve such a thing. She pulled away to smile more fully up at him, brushing her nose to his in a cute way.

"Thank you," Hellia whispered.

Cobra hummed and pulled back, looking over at the shower that was still running. "Get washed up and I'll head down to figure out dinner," He turned to the door before stopping and cursing under his breath. "I'll need to run into town. I don't have any dishes that haven't had poison on them and I _really_ don't want to kill you." Hellia opened her mouth but he shook his head quickly to cut her off. "Dragon Slayer thing," Cobra explained. "I'll be back in a few. Go anywhere on the main floor but, if you go up those fucking stairs, I'll know, so don't."

Hellia pressed her lips together, rubbing her upper arms and pausing the motion when his gaze drifted down, reminding her that she was mostly bare from the waist up. "Um… okay…" She mumbled, doing her best to cover her chest a little but not wanting to turn her back to him even if he'd already seen the word carved into her skin and had seen the story behind it. "Be safe," She called out behind Cobra as he walked out of the bathroom, smiling a bit when she heard him chuckle.

Taking a deep breath, Hellia expelled it on a sigh and made about removing the rest of her clothing, tossing it into the hamper nearest the door. She reached up to unclasp the strand of jewelry around her neck but stopped, chewing her lip as she realized she really didn't want to do that. So, instead, left it on as she stepped beneath the warm spray of water in the shower, not even caring that it almost felt too hot to the touch.

A low groan left her lips as Hellia allowed the water to wash away the events of the last two days, relishing in the heat it brought to her body. She took her time, using the shampoo that, when she opened it, filled the bath with that glorious hemlock and cocoa scent that she identified as Cobra and she washed her hair thoroughly, making sure that each strand had been cleansed before rinsing the shampoo from it. She repeated the process with the conditioner, letting it sit as she sat on the little bench on one side of the shower and leaned her head back on a heavy sigh.

Never before had she experienced such a relaxing shower in her life, had never really bathed in anything but freezing cold water that stung as it pelted her sensitive skin. It was wonderful and yet another first she made sure to log deep within her mind so that she wouldn't forget it, putting it in that little mental drawer with all of the other firsts she'd gotten to experience with Cobra. Her first kiss, first actual conversation, first gift… It all added up to being the best two days in all her years of living, topping even getting out of the Tower, and she couldn't wait to see what first would be next in her new life.

She finished showering, rinsing the conditioner from her hair and scrubbing her body with a wash that smelled mysteriously like cocoa and almond, before she shut off the water and made her way out of the shower back into the bathroom. Hellia grabbed a fluffy towel and wrapped it around her body before wrapping another around her hair so it would dry a bit before she braided it to prevent tangles.

Making her way into the bedroom, she opened her bag to retrieve some clothing to put on. It was there, as she was standing in nothing but a pair of vibrant pink panties, that she realized that she didn't have any kind of pajamas. She did have a couple of… um… lace things that Lucy had insisted on and had been smuggled into the bottom of the pile that had been rung up before Cobra had seen, but she couldn't wear something like that… Could she?

Hellia chewed her lip for a moment, looking over to see the closet that was open nearby. She perked her ears up to listen, making sure that Cobra hadn't returned yet, before making her way into the closet and looking at the rows of thermal shirts and button-ups that were hung neatly in a way that almost appeared obsessively organized. She skimmed her delicate fingers over a deep plum colored shirt and made up her mind quickly.

Grasping the shirt, Hellia returned into the main bedroom and finished drying off the worst of her hair before she slipped her arms into the sleeves. She buttoned it up, realizing that, although Cobra was a very muscular man, his chest was still a bit smaller around than her own, much to her chagrin, meaning that she needed to leave the first few buttons undone and rolled the sleeves up above her elbows. She did enjoy the fact that it hung low enough that she didn't feel awkward about not having any shorts on over her panties as it fell about mid-thigh on the small woman's curvy frame.

Considering that done, Hellia used her brand new comb to tug out the worst of the knots in her hair before braiding it in a single line to fall down her back between her shoulder blades and happily made her way out of the room. She hadn't heard Cobra come in as of yet and she was told she could explore, so, explore she did as she decided she wanted to memorize every room of the beautiful house.

The plants truly did cover the majority of the available surfaces, in some cases spilling over their given containers and growing a bit wild as she smiled at seeing some creeping vines crawling up the edges of the fireplace, though they were far enough away that the heat wouldn't affect them. A large lacrama TV sat centered above the fireplace with large built-in shelves on either side that were filled to the brim with movies that showed everything from romance to gag-inducing horror, it seemed that Cobra had a wide range of tastes.

Making her way out of the TV room, Hellia surveyed the kitchen, going through cupboards and noting that mostly everything there was some kind of substance that was poisonous. She figured that a slayer must have to ingest their element and that was what Cobra had meant when he didn't want to kill her as he likely didn't keep any dishes that weren't covered in the deadly toxins that he consumed on the daily.

She found herself next in the library, her mismatched eyes going wide at seeing such an expansive collection before herself. Hellia couldn't contain her joy as she quickly moved across the plush carpeting to a shelf and selected a book at random. Her excitement grew when she noted it was a book of poetry and she sat down in the window seat, looking out over the dark expanse as the clouds above blocked out the moon.

Opening the book in her lap, Hellia lost herself in the words.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N;** _As always, thank you so much to the commenters from last chapter; **Animegirl549** and **Missy 63**. This chapter is shorter than the others due to some... happenings. I'm not giving any spoilers, but I rated this M for a reason and if you have a problem with it, just don't read Mature-rated fics? Enjoy!_

* * *

 ** _Word Count:_** _2,942_

* * *

She awoke as the sun made it's way above the trees, it's golden rays bursting through the window to one side of the room. Her mind was bleary about how she'd ended up in the bed, but, as Hellia looked over, she saw Cobra curled protectively around her with his nose near her throat and a hand on her thigh.

A deep blush stained her cheeks at the hardness pressed into her ass, making her bite her lip as she slowly and methodically got out of the bed and smiled down at the man. He must have found her in his library the night before when she'd fallen asleep reading that book of poetry and brought her into his room without disturbing her sleep. This was truly a good man.

Deciding she would leave him be, Hellia made her way through the house, ending up in the kitchen where she noted that there were pots, pans, plates, and everything she could think of to need for utensils that were unopened on the black granite island. She made herself busy, washing the new dishes and placing them into the cupboards next to the old ones before opening the fridge and noting that he'd also bought more food than the sparse amount he'd had when she'd checked the night before.

Hellia was placing bacon onto a plate when something caught her eye and she jumped at seeing a disheveled Cobra watching her intently from the archway leading into the hall. The half-Pixie placed a hand to her racing heart, happy she'd gotten the scare _after_ putting the pan down or she was certain she would have slopped hot grease all over herself.

It was then that she realized that his eye was raking over her body and Hellia fidgeted slightly, unsure if he would accuse her of tempting a dragon again. The thought made her blush a bit and she pressed her lips together, shifting foot to foot as she waited for him to speak. It was… unsettling, to say the least, as he simply stood studying her from his place about eight feet from where she was in nothing but his shirt and a pair of panties.

"Tis one thing to be tempted," Cobra finally said as he moved across the kitchen and trapped her against the counter with his arms and looked down at her intensely. "Another thing to fall."

Hellia's heart was racing as his lips skimmed up her neck and she immediately recognized the quote from the book she'd been reading the night before. William Shakespeare, one of her favorite poets. "The tempter or the tempted," She countered slowly, shivering slightly when his teeth grazed against her frantic pulse. "Who sins the most?"

"Tempt not a desperate man," He grumbled before raising his head, that desperation he spoke of glimmering in his eye.

"Can one desire too much of a good thing?" The small woman questioned quietly, somewhat knowing what she was asking of him, but also knowing that he was unlikely to give it to her.

Cobra's eye flashed with some unknown emotion before his lips were on hers, his hands gripping Hellia's hips and lifting her up so she was seated on the counter. She had never had someone speak to her in the way he had and she found her mind being seduced just as much as her body by the slayer who dominated her every thought. His lips on hers had any rational thought tossed out the window and when his tongue slid across her lip, Hellia opened for him, eager to taste that wonderful heady flavor that was simply _Cobra_.

He put his hands on her thighs, slowly smoothing them up the skin and making Hellia sigh against his lips, unsure what he was doing, but knowing that whatever he was going to give her would help sate some of this burning need within her. When his fingers brushed against her heated core, Hellia couldn't help the gasp that escaped her lips at the jolt to her body, her hips jerking a bit at the unexpected touch.

She wondered dimly what that feeling was, though she wasn't sure she minded as it seemed to begin to quell that twisting need in her stomach. Cobra moved his hands further up her body, undoing the buttons on the shirt she wore as he did so and making little butterflies build in her stomach at the idea of being bare before him. No one had seen her in less than a bra before, and even then, he was the only one who had seen that far as she'd always been conscious about her scars.

"Stop thinking," Cobra ordered, pulling away as the last button came undone and he licked his lips slightly before he ripped a gasp from her throat the moment his thumb slid over one pert nipple. "There we go," He murmured, leaning forward to lick up the shell of her ear. "No more thinking, mi alma."

Hellia wasn't sure she would be able to do anything more than that with how frazzled her mind currently was. She knew she was beyond innocent by most people's standards, had known that she knew so very little of these carnal pleasures because of her minimal access to… well… anything that would teach her about them. Cobra, though… Cobra seemed as though he would prove to be an excellent teacher as he brought a low moan from her kiss-swollen lips by lightly pinching one of her nipples between his fingers.

He kissed and licked down her neck, his tongue tracing along just above her necklace before he scraped his teeth on her collarbone. Hellia's mind had been wiped clean of anything but his touch, every nerve in her body on fire and responding in the most glorious of ways. New sparks shot to her core when his mouth moved further down and closed over her nipple, bringing a low moan from the small woman and her hands involuntarily moved to clutch at Cobra's hair.

He gave a growl that reverberated through her breast and made Hellia whimper a bit before gasping in shock when the slayer's sharp teeth scraped her sensitive bud, his tongue smoothing over the area immediately after. Cobra moved to her other nipple, giving it just as much attention as the first and seeming to enjoy making her gasp and moan with his skilled teeth and tongue, keeping her from thinking too much and focused only on his touch.

It wasn't until he'd pulled her panties down her legs and dropped to his knees before her that panic began to step in. Her heart hammered and Hellia sat up, her eyes wide with fear of whatever he might be thinking of doing. "Wh-"

A finger gliding up the drenched lips between her thighs had the words dying into a loud moan. "I already told you not to think," Cobra nearly growled before tugging her forward off of the counter with her back still pressed to the hard surface, one foot on the floor while her other leg was pulled over his shoulder. He seemed to take a deep breath, hot air flowing over her most secret place and making Hellia shiver involuntarily. "You smell too fucking good," He said, reminding her of the words he'd used the day before when they'd been kissing after he'd given her the necklace.

Whatever she might have said next was lost to her when she felt his tongue slide up the slit of her pussy, making her fingers tangle in his hair once more as she moaned out. "Oh, Gods," She whimpered, trying to make sense of the feeling while trying to remain upright on quaking legs.

Cobra licked at her again, one hand gripping her ass and the other moving between her legs to assist his mouth in bringing gasping moans from the innocent woman. Her eyes snapped wide when a single finger pressed into her folds, thrusting up into her body and making that heat in the pit of her stomach begin to tighten with a foreign feeling. The shock of his teeth gliding across a particularly sensitive spot had Hellia attempting to pull away, only for his hand on her ass to hold her in place and that finger within her to begin moving in and out of her wet tunnel.

That coil wound tighter in her stomach, causing confusion and fear to build up in the half-Pixie as she began moaning wantonly, her body reacting in a way that she'd never felt before. It almost seemed as if that were his goal as Cobra slowly began to work a second finger within her body, the stretching feeling adding to that tightness that threatened to snap at any moment.

"Let go," The maroon haired man ordered as he pulled away for just a moment, dragging his tongue along her most sacred place. "Let go for me, mi alma."

Hellia wasn't sure what exactly he meant, but something happened in her body when his fingers brushed a spot deep within her on the next inward thrust, his tongue pressing hard against the most sensitive place she could imagine. It was like color burst behind Hellia's eyelids as she threw her head back on a scream, pressing her hips into the man's face as her thighs locked around his head. The coil within her had snapped and it didn't seem to stop Cobra as he kept up his motions as wave after wave thrashed over Hellia's ravaged mind.

When it was over, she had slumped back against the counter, her chest heaving and a flush to her skin. Her mind worked slowly to come back to life and she opened her eyes to find Cobra holding her in his arms, which, in retrospect, was a good thing as she wasn't sure her legs were completely solid at that point as the rest of her body felt suspiciously like unset Jell-O.

Cobra's deep chuckle helped bring her back out of the semi-dazed state she was in and he nuzzled her hair. It took Hellia a moment to realize that her panties were back on and her shirt was buttoned back up, her body pressed up against the tall, muscled body of the slayer who had just rocked her world.

"What…" She didn't know how to ask what had just happened to her, didn't know if it was even okay for her to ask that as she chewed her lip. That wonderful, indescribable feeling had swept over her and she'd been powerless to stop it, but, what was it?

"An orgasm," Cobra explained, tugging the band out of her hair as he ran his fingers through her long, dark locks. "Trust me, you'll experience it a lot more after this. It's really fucking hard to keep my hands off of you."

Hellia wet her lips and looked up at the maroon haired man with a very small smile. "And you're a selfish bastard?" She asked, echoing his words from the night before.

This brought a bark of laughter and a wicked smirk to his handsome face, "Damn straight I am, and don't forget that."

"I think the food is cold," Hellia said, hoping to divert the conversation as she looked over at the bacon and omelets that she'd had sitting on the counter. "I didn't know if you preferred tea or coffee, so I made both, though, I guess I prefer tea."

He let her stand, making sure she was steady on her feet before he grabbed some amber colored jar out of the cupboard next to her head and headed over to the full coffee pot. Hellia sat down after collecting her tea and sipped as she watched him pour some of the strange white powder into his coffee with deep interest about it. When he flashed her the label, her mouth formed a small 'o' of understanding- he was putting arsenic into his coffee.

"So," She began, feeling the need to explain herself a bit about the shirt. "I didn't buy anything to sleep in and I kind of saw your closet and your shirts are long enough for me. I'll um.. Get something to sleep in once I can get some money or something. I'm sorry about taking your clothing without asking."

Cobra sipped his coffee and rose a brow as he leaned on the counter. "No need," He said slowly. "Actually, I expect you to continue to dress just like that for bed unless I tell you otherwise."

She swiped her tongue over her bottom lip at the tone of his voice, something in her clicking at the utter dominance he put off in just those few words. It was strange, but exciting, to be told what to do like that by him. She realized that she'd actually enjoyed him doing it every time Cobra had told her to do anything, something telling her to do whatever he'd told her without question. Was it because of the mating thing?

"You're a natural submissive," Cobra shook his head at her, eying the raven haired beauty over the rim of his cup. "Most prospective mates are. Slayers are naturally dominant, it's the dragon in us. Snowflake would be able to explain it better because she's like you and I can only explain it from the dominant perspective."

"Oh," Hellia said, her brows furrowing as she pushed food around on her plate and figuring he meant the other mate to slayers, Yukino. "What are we doing today?"

"The Geezer said something about a party at the guild," He responded as he sat down to eat himself, putting more of that white powder on his omelet. "Up to you if we go, but it's probably a good idea because the Demon is going to be pissy at me if we don't."

The Geezer, she knew was what he called the Master, but, who was the Demon? Was there an actual demon in the guild? The idea made her shiver involuntarily until she reminded herself that she wasn't completely human, either. Though Pixies appeared to be human, their magic wasn't based on Earthland and didn't work in the same way as a human's magic did, or most other creatures.

She chewed her lip as she thought about that, trying to think of the words that her mother's memories had described it. Fairy Magic? No, that wasn't it. Pixies were the basis of the lore on faeries, one of the oldest races to walk this planet and the supposed children of the Gods themselves, each kingdom holding a kind of power that branched off of that. Her mother's kingdom being that of the sun and everything it held dominion over- fortune, misfortune, happiness, despair, it was all part of the light and one of the nine kingdoms. There were some Pixies who even were able to harness the power of all nine kingdoms- earth, wind, fire, water, ice, light, darkness, poison, and the stars- these people held a strange kind of magic that actually dictated the magic that could create- or, destroy- the whole world. The One Magic, Neveah's memories had called it.

"Pixie Magic is the One Magic?" Cobra seemed surprised as he spoke, looking at her with shock clearly written across his features.

Hellia looked up, not having realized she'd been lost in thought as she'd eaten, her tea gone as well. "That's what my mother's memories told me," She confirmed with a slight nod.

Cobra hummed and seemed to drift off for a few moments before shrugging. "Makes sense," He decided. Hellia stood up and moved to clear away their dishes before Cobra stopped her. "I've got it, go get dressed and we'll head out," He told her, inclining his head towards the hall.

She opened her mouth to argue but snapped her jaw shut at the look in his eye, that little voice in her head telling her to obey the order. Almost as if she had lost control of her movements, she moved into the hall and towards the bedroom. Her bag had been emptied and she went into the closet to note that Cobra's shirts had been shoved down some to make room for her own clothing. A snoop through the drawers there produced her undergarments all laid out neatly with a divider separating her bras, panties, and socks.

Hellia slipped on a fresh pair of panties in a soft blue and a matching bra before she dressed in a pair of gray shorts, a shirt in a sapphire blue that dipped in a low V in the front and had a stretch of white fabric to partially conceal her cleavage, the sleeves cutting off at the elbow, and tall black socks. She was putting on her boots, once again, when Cobra walked in, grabbing some clothing before he disappeared into the bathroom.

By the time Hellia had retrieved her scarf from by the door, Cobra was dressed and approached her, grabbing her by the hips to reach for his white coat. Hellia's breath stuttered when she felt his fingers brush the little sliver of skin left bare between her shirt and shorts, mismatched eyes snapping away from the little mirror surrounded by vines she'd been looking in to tie the scarf around her hair and make it look presentable.

"I told you," Cobra said quietly, dipping his head and grazing his teeth along her neck. "I can't keep my hands off of you."

Hellia shuddered, her eyes closing on a sigh. She wasn't really sure she wanted him to keep his hands off of her, honestly.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N;** _As always, thank you so much to **animegirl549** and **Missy 63** for your lovely reviews! This chapter is a bit longer to make up for last chapter being shorter! I've been dealing with some personal stuff pertaining to my schizoaffective disorder and have been having harder episodes as of late, meaning I haven't had as much time to actually write without having problems. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'm sorry if the fight scene is trash because I'm really bad at those!_

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 ** _Word Count:_** _5,027_

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The guild was open, a large room that had Hellia wanting to turn a circle to look at everything, though she stayed close to Cobra's side and clutched to his arm like a lifeline. Her old guild had been a dark and dingy warehouse that had been bought for dirt cheap by the Master after doing only a few jobs meant for traveling, guildless mages. The tables had been close together, making the place a deathtrap for someone with clumsiness as prominent as Hellia had and the place had just reeked of stale oil and dirty water.

Fairy Tail, however, was wonderful. Mismatched eyes looked around at the open rafters, largely spaced tables, and cheerful atmosphere with a barely-restrained glee. Though the scent of alcohol was thick, the guild smelled more like the magnolia flowers that the hometown was named for and mixed in was some light and airy scent that only particularly strong magic gave off, almost like the forest on a rainy spring day, honestly. It was a heady mixture and had Hellia smiling more truly than she had been when she'd walked in with Cobra, having smiled a bit about a comment he'd made about some stripper or something and wondered what he'd meant by that.

Her eyes went wide when she realized that he'd been dead serious about the stripper as a man with dark bluish-black hair stood in the middle of the guild stark naked and pointing an accusing finger at the pinkette slayer, Natsu. It seemed the other man wasn't having any of the accusations being sent his way as he jumped up and burst into flame. Wait, flame?!

"Fire Dragon Slayer," Cobra explained lowly, continuing on his path to the sparkling clean bar where a woman with short, purple hair and a whitenette woman were filling drink orders and wiping glasses respectively. He sat on a stool and waited for Hellia to sit in the one on the other side of him, the side where he could still see her from his one good eye.

"You must be Hellia," The white haired woman greeted, moving over to the pair quickly and a strange look coming over her face.

"Demon," The maroon haired slayer began, leveling the woman with a glare. "You ask that question and I'll poison your little boy toy's food for the next month. You might be able to handle it, but he can't."

Hellia flinched at the wave of some dark magic forming an aura around the smiling woman who sent a sickeningly sweet smile at Cobra. She couldn't believe that people like this were actually in the guild and wondered if Cobra had made a mistake angering this woman. Was she even truly a woman? Right now, she resembled the demon that Cobra had nicknamed her for and it was horribly unsettling to the half-Pixie.

All at once the aura was gone and the woman was smiling politely at Hellia, making her want to rub her eyes to make sure she was actually seeing such a dramatic transformation. "I'm MiraJane," The woman greeted, holding out a hand after she'd set down the cloth she'd been using to wipe a glass.

Hellia hesitantly took the hand, nearly wincing at the grip and then the air of familiarity dawned on the raven haired beauty and mismatched eyes went wide. "You're the model for Sorcerer's Weekly."

"Of course," Mira replied with a sweet smile. "I'm sure Jason would love to have you do a few shoots as well. It would help the guild's reputation and with-"

A loud growl from Cobra cut off the words that would have been spoken next by the whitenette, drawing Hellia's attention to the unruly slayer. She chewed her lip and sat back, not even hesitating in putting some distance between herself and Mira as it seemed to relax Cobra just a bit when she'd done that. Perhaps he'd been irritated by the woman touching her?

Cobra stood up abruptly, "We're taking training ground four."

Hellia sent a smile of apology to the other woman and dashed off to follow Cobra out of the guild through a door in the back. The sky opened up to a large field that was separated into four distinct quadrants, each one seeming to have purple runes outlining it that Hellia quickly noted prevented terrain and outside damage from spells. There were numerous training dummies lined up in each field, all holding the same protection runes that were obviously placed to keep the space from being ruined at all while the guild mages trained.

"Your Luck Magic is useful," Cobra began, taking off his coat and tossing it over one of the dummies outside of the barrier. "You need to be able to protect yourself while your Wheel is turning, so we'll start there. I want you to summon your Wheel and then protect yourself while I come at you. Keep part of your attention on the Wheel so you might use whatever it gives you as soon as you're able to."

The raven haired woman nodded, her mind immediately going straight into her defensive mode. She held her hands up in a circle above her head, her magic causing her body to glow a bright gold while sunlight refracted between her thumbs and forefingers. "Wheel of Fortune," She shouted, eyes going wide when Cobra wasted no time in running at her.

Hellia dodged to the side, her eyes glancing up to see her Wheel rolling above her head with great speed. She had time until it would slow, so she landed back on the balls of her feet and ducked her head before Cobra's fist landed on her cheek. Her forearms blocked the next three swings before she heard the loud ping that told her that her Wheel had landed on something. She held her hand up, praying that the Fates had given her something useful this time.

"Seriously?!" She shouted, staring at the dark green bikini that had been provided to her.

"In a fight, you have no time to question what your magic gives you," Cobra said from behind her, making Hellia jump slightly in shock. When had he… "When you get distracted, your guard is down. Fix that. Again."

Hellia sighed, calling her Wheel forth for a second time after she'd tossed the bikini off to the side. She worked on dodging the blows that Cobra sent her way, ignoring the gathering mages who watched from the edges of the barrier as she worked on her speed while the man steadily got faster. The ping went off once more and she nearly shouted in victory when the sparkles that signified her magic glittered around a…

"You have got to be kidding me!" Hellia growled, throwing the lingerie to the ground. "This is hopeless!"

"You're overthinking it," Cobra told her as there were several loud bouts of laughter heard from the sidelines. "Bright Eyes," He shouted, turning to the blonde who had wandered outside to watch. "Spar with her."

The Stellar Mage smiled brightly, stepping through the barrier when Cobra had walked out of it. She took up a fighting stance with her hands balled into fists, "Alright. I'm not as fast as you or Cobra, so you've got that on me. We're the same size and bikinis and lingerie won't work on me. Let's go."

The blonde ran towards Hellia, making the woman have to cast her spell with one hand, surprising her that she even could do so. The Wheel began to turn, colors blurred together in the sunlight while Hellia worked on jumping into the air to block a solid kick sent at her by Lucy. She crossed her arms over her chest, barely stopping the woman's fist from colliding with her sternum and was sent skidding backwards, her body slamming against the rune barrier painfully. Before she could get her breath, Hellia was forced to roll to the left as another strong kick was sent her way, the force of Lucy's foot hitting the barrier creating a wave of runes to reflect back along the wall.

 _Ping_.

Hellia pressed her lips together and held up a hand, grinning in triumph when her hand grasped something heavy. She wielded the large hammer easily, having become strong from moving around heavy objects when in her old guild, the metal of the war hammer glinting in the sunlight. It made her smile to see the object was useful, even as she was forced to roll to the side to dodge a whip from wrapping around her ankle.

The small woman forced magic into the hammer, knowing her Pixie Magic was able to infuse objects with some amount of power. She rose it high into the air with golden sparkles forming around it. "Sonic Impact!" She shouted, slamming the hammer down into the ground and sending a large shockwave across the field directly towards Lucy.

The blonde anticipated the attack and leapt into the air, lashing out with her whip once more. Hellia cried out as the end of the whip hit her cheek, causing the skin to split and blood to well up to dribble down her face. She settled the hammer across her shoulders, using the weight of the weapon to spin it around her neck and build up momentum as more magic built around the half-Pixie.

Gripping the handle, she swung the hammer quicker, spinning on the ball of one foot three times before releasing the heavy weapon straight up into the air. "Lucky Promise of Turbulent Demise!"

The hammer shattered against the top of the runic barrier, a shower of golden sparks falling down onto the arena and causing Lucy to cry out in pain as shards of the golden metal dug into her flesh, beginning to twist into a quickly building cyclone. It was strangely beautiful to see the glimmering golden flecks sparkling in the light of the sun and create a vortex around the blonde, though Lucy's cries caused alarm in many who had seen the rune barrier shatter.

The twister settled, leaving Lucy gasping for air and bleeding from numerous wounds on her body where the shards of magic-infused metal had sliced her relentlessly. Hellia took a step back, gasping in horror as her hand came up to cover her mouth. She hadn't meant to hurt Lucy so badly, hadn't meant to call out the spell that had caused this to happen, her mind had simply taken over and she had felt like an onlooker while she'd fought the woman.

A hand on her shoulder caused her to tear her gaze away from the battered body of what she'd come to think of as a friend and looked up at Cobra who was… smiling at her? "Why are you smiling?!" Hellia demanded, her voice hitching as anger floored her mind. "I could have killed her. I-"

"You did exactly what I knew you were going to, Cupcake," He chuckled, ruffling the infuriated woman's hair. "Bright Eyes will be fine. The little brat is taking care of her and she's a lot stronger than you know."

Hellia looked over to see that a young bluenette was quickly running her glowing blue hands over the blonde's body, the cuts all disappearing before Lucy quickly stood up and grinned widely at Hellia, making her way across the field to embrace the shaken woman. Her mind was a blur, unable to comprehend why the woman she'd just hurt was hugging her right then.

"You did great, Hellia!" Lucy enthused as others crowded around the confused woman.

"But, I…" She couldn't form words, her mind trying to understand what was going on and she looked to Cobra desperately for answers.

"I called the guild when you were getting dressed earlier," He explained, throwing an arm over her shoulders and leading her back towards the guild itself with Lucy and the small bluenette right behind them. "The Geezer mentioned there being myths about an inner soul that Pixies had that took over during battle, kind of like the dragon souls within us slayers. I needed to get you to let down your guard long enough to let it take over, mostly by forcing you to use your magic repeatedly. Eventually, it took over and you started fighting like your Pixie ancestors did."

"So, I…" Hellia thought about this, unsure how she felt about everyone in the guild knowing her heritage. Sure, Cobra needed to know because he was… well… whatever he was to her, but that didn't mean that their guildmates needed to know, did it?

"You're not using your coin in battle unless it's for fun," Cobra continued, drawing Hellia out of her thoughts. "The Wheel will give you a weapon you need if your battle soul is activated, which the bookworms are all working on finding out how you can do that on a whim. I'm not having my mate be defenseless, mi alma."

Hellia chewed her lip, sitting at the table with Cobra and looked across the hard surface to where Lucy and the little bluenette had sat down. She couldn't quite understand how they'd come across such information so quickly when she had her mother's memories to tell her everything she knew about her Pixie-half. The fact that no one in the guild seemed to be yelling about her being Bruscar or threatening her after she'd hurt Lucy only added to her confusion, making Hellia slightly uncomfortable with herself.

"We're going to help you, Hellia," Lucy promised, reaching across the table to grip the smaller woman's hands. "All of us. You're nakama now, we don't let our nakama down. We're going to help you learn how to control your other magic and we're going to make sure that those assholes in Griffin's Claws regret ever kicking you out. You're joining me in the Games next year and we're going to kick some Griffin ass."

Mismatched eyes clouded over with tears and she didn't even notice when they trailed down her cheeks until Cobra had cupped her chin in one hand and turned her towards him. "First, though," He murmured, touching his forehead to hers with a small smirk. "We're going to take a trip so you can make use of this."

Hellia looked down at her lap to see he'd placed the bikini there, making her face turn a brilliant red as Lucy and the young girl both started laughing. She turned her face up when Cobra pressed his lips to her forehead and left her sitting at the table with the other two girls, her mismatched eyes following him over to a board that she assumed posted jobs. Teeth tugged at her lower lip while she tried to push back thoughts of what they'd done the last time they'd been alone- just that morning.

"-lia. Hellia. Hellia!"

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked, snapped out of her thoughts as a small blush stained her cheeks at the smirk that formed on the tall slayer's face before she turned to look at Lucy.

The blonde laughed lightly, "I was just trying to introduce you. This is Wendy, the Sky Dragon Slayer. She's also the guild's healer-in-training."

"Nice to meet you," The young girl said politely.

The raven haired woman smiled easily at the bluenette, "You as well." Her eyes went back to Lucy and she frowned a bit. "I'm sorry I hurt you," She said with mirth.

Lucy waved her hand dismissively, "It's nothing I'm not used to. All of us mates are prone to getting hurt, actually. I'm sure you know that by now."

Hellia pursed her lips as she thought about this, the woman's words striking a chord in her mind. It was true that she was horribly accident-prone, having been clumsy her whole life. Was what she was saying true, though? Was she just clumsy, not due to her Pixie blood, but because of her being destined as a mate to dragon slayers?

This brought yet another dilemma, would she be able to tell the difference between what she was truly feeling for the maroon haired slayer and what their bond- or whatever it was- was making her feel? What if all of it was just some strange magic that could wear off over time? What if she agreed to all of this mating stuff and then Cobra grew bored of her? What if-

"Finish that thought," Cobra growled in her ear, making Hellia jump slightly in her seat. "And you'll piss me off." He pulled her up by grasping her upper arm and sent the other two girls a warning glare as he began walking towards the guild doors, half-dragging the startled woman behind him as he did so. "Dragon magic isn't something you question," He continued when they'd gotten a good ways away from the guild and were making their way towards Cobra's house in the woods.

"But, what if-"

"I already told you to shut it," He snapped more irritably, his voice gaining that dominating edge that had Hellia's mouth snapping shut and that little voice telling her to obey his command. "The bond doesn't force feelings onto anyone, I would know because I looked into it. I don't like having my life fucked with any more than anyone else does and didn't like the idea of being forced into a relationship. What you're feeling? All you, mi alma, just like it is for me."

"But-" She cut off again when Cobra sent her a sharp glance, her words dying on the tip of her tongue once more when she felt something vibrate along her skin, a foreign sensation that nearly felt like her magic being called forth.

Cobra continued walking, having stopped to talk to her for a moment, his jaw set as he prowled along with his hand still clasped over Hellia's arm in a grip that was bordering on painful, but not enough to actually leave a mark. She let him- not like she had much of a choice- lead her back down the path towards his home, the daylight giving her a new view of the place in the woods that had her heart warming slightly. She'd known it was a beautiful house, but seeing it now made her find the overgrown plants that surrounded the large cabin all the more appealing.

Vines grew up the edges of the stone that made the bottom floor, creeping over the wood of the top and trailing around windows that reflected the sun that pushed through the tree canopy. A chimney that would push out the smoke from the fireplace in the TV room was made of the same slate gray stone that covered the bottom of the house and was covered in the same green vines, buds of some unknown flower seeming to be waiting for the proper time before they would bloom. The path that the pair walked on was stone as well, this stone being a beautiful shade of pale blue that made it easy to pick out between the twin lines of bushes that grew alongside the pathway.

All-in-all, the place was breathtaking and had Hellia smiling faintly at the beauty of this home she hoped that Cobra would decide would make a suitable nest for them. Wait… had she really just thought that? She chewed her lip while she waited for him to unlock the door, replaying the thought in her mind along with the words he'd spoken. If she was feeling these things without the bond, did that mean she was accepting it all without magic being involved? But, did that mean that they would have somehow connected even if the magic hadn't been there to give them the nudge? It seemed possible, but it seemed almost too good to be true.

"Dragon Slayer magic is special," Cobra began as he went about putting clothing into his pack while she sat on the edge of the bed watching him closely. "I did a fucking lot of reading on it when I joined Fairy Tail, reading into the minds of the Matchstick and Bolt Brains while also reading anything I could get my hands on. Mating is a tricky process, starting when a male or female with the personality that will mesh well with a slayer's. Once someone is born with a personality like that, they become a candidate for mating, of any slayer- Dragon, God, Devil. You're appealing to them all on a level that no other would be."

Hellia listened while he packed, watching as more and more clothing disappeared into his pack as he put in some of her own and she determined that it was enchanted somehow to hold more than it looked like it could. Magic was such a beautiful thing when not toying with the lives of others, it seemed. It made life easier, though it seemed to be making hers more complicated by the day.

"It is complicated," He acknowledged with a nod, taking the bikini from her clenched hands and adding it to the pack. "Even though it makes you more appealing, it doesn't force you into this- it doesn't force any of us into this. A slayer finding a mate is a special thing, I know Bright Eyes told you that you're like the best treasure that anyone could find and it's true- you're a treasure, mi alma." As he spoke, Cobra crouched down and put a hand under her chin, forcing Hellia to look him in the eye. "The magic doesn't force it, it only makes the idea of being together more appealing to both parties involved. You felt the pull towards Bolt Brains on the train and on the platform." When Hellia nodded, Cobra smirked, "It will be that way with any unmated slayer until we take another step in the mating process."

"What step?" She questioned, her brow furrowing as she tried to follow along with what he was saying. It wasn't the magic making her feel like she was beginning to fall in love with him, then, it was all her, though the magic had given them both the little push towards each other. The idea of that happening with someone else made her uneasy and slightly intrigued at the same time, though she knew for certain that she only wanted Cobra… for now.

His lips pressed together, likely at her line of thought. "I have to bite you," Cobra said bluntly, making Hellia's mismatched eyes go wide with shock. "It won't be pleasant, which is why it's usually done during sex. It's true that sex can make pain tolerance higher and, with my magic being what it is, I'm pretty sure its going to burn like hell when I mark you."

She found herself worrying her lip once more, her eyes casting downwards to where her hands were fidgeting in her lap. It would hurt, but sex would make it easier? She was still- mostly- a virgin and she'd known that sex would hurt- the first time, anyways. Other than what she'd experienced that morning, Hellia was as pristine as they came, never having been even kissed before Cobra had fallen into her life. Could she really do that with him? It seemed appealing in some strange way, to give herself to him completely, although the idea was terrifying for her. Would it hurt? Probably, if the stories she'd heard were true, but she was certain that it would be better if she had someone who would calm the panic in her chest as Cobra had done when he'd done those things to her in the kitchen.

Cobra smiled a bit, using his thumb to pull Hellia's lip from between her teeth. "I would do my best not to hurt you," He promised before sighing heavily. "Coming from me, that's a weird fucking statement considering all I've wanted in the past was to hurt people."

This made her suck in a breath and look at him, eyes searching his face for any signs of him not telling her the truth. What she found had Hellia's heart dropping to the pit of her stomach, this man had killed before, and brutally so. What was she doing with a man like this? The idea of seeing him kill someone had her stomach revolting as it turned over in protest of that idea, though her heart ached in a way she had never known before. She knew he would never hurt her, but would he kill again?

"It's likely," Cobra replied to her thoughts easily, keeping his gaze locked with hers as he spoke the honest truth. "I'm not saying I'm going to do what I did in the past ever again," He promised, his thumb stroking her cheek soothingly. "What I mean is, if someone were to hurt you, I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from tearing them to shreds. Fuck, I wouldn't _want_ to stop myself from doing that. I've done some shitty things in the past, most of it the guild knows, some I've never spoken to a soul. I'm telling you this because, if we're going to be mated, you deserve to know. You can walk away, the bond won't stop that. You could walk out the fucking door right now and into the arms of any of the other slayers and I wouldn't stop you. I said I'd kill them, but if that's what you wanted, I wouldn't stop you."

Her eyes flickered over to the door before looking back at Cobra as she thought through his words over the last few minutes. He would let her leave, he would give up his own happiness if that was what she wanted. He'd killed and would again if she was hurt by someone, a show of an unhealthy obsession and urge to possess what he claimed as his own- a mark of a dominant man, if she'd ever known one. Though, he seemed to be completely honest with her, had told her some of what those in the guild already knew, Hellia couldn't find it within herself to be afraid of that.

She took a deep breath before speaking, making sure her heart was no longer racing and that she understood what her feelings were telling her to do. "What would you do if I was to ask you to tell me everything?" She asked, watching his face for any signs of aversion.

"I would tell you," Cobra replied instantly.

Hellia ran her tongue over her teeth, having hoped for that answer from him. She nodded, "So, does the hoard have to be complete before you mark me?"

Cobra's eye went a bit wide when the words left Hellia's lips, having apparently not expected her to be so accepting of it all. "You're not leaving," He breathed out.

"Why would I?" She questioned, clearly confused by the idea he'd even think she would take that route. "I've never had anyone want to be around me as much as you seem to. In Griffin's Claws, I was simply an errand girl, a maid of sorts, no one paid me much heed and everyone was out to make my life hell. Sure, if the magic works the way you said, I could be with one or more of the other slayers and be perfectly content, possibly even happy with them, but they wouldn't be _you_. It's not them that I want, no matter how appealing they might be to me right now. Lucy doesn't seem all that interested in any of them the way she is with Laxus, so it tells me that once we're mated, any passing interest I have in them will fade away as well. I'm ready for this, all of it, and if it takes us completing this bond right now for you to feel better about us, then take me here and now, because I don't want you having doubts any more than you want me having them."

That glorious purr filled the bedroom and Hellia laughed as she was quickly pulled to her feet and into the muscled arms of Cobra as he embraced her, her head fitting just beneath his chin as he held her close to him. She smiled truly against the thick thermal shirt he wore and let the purring relax any frayed nerves within herself. She'd half expected him to tackle her onto the bed and have his way with her, though she couldn't say the idea was entirely unappealing. She'd been honest in saying that she would do that if it would make him feel better about her only belonging to him and she was surprised that he hadn't taken her up on the offer.

"The hoard," Cobra mumbled as he rubbed his cheek on her hair. "It does have to be complete. I'm going to start working on it while we take as many jobs as possible so that those fuckers don't touch what belongs to me. Anything you need out of the bag, you ask, I don't want you seeing if there's anything in there that I'm adding to the hoard. If you have any questions about that, you ask Lucy what it was like for her when she saw Sparkplug's before he presented it to her. You'll be able to talk to her when we're home, but you aren't going to the guild until we're mated, I'm not taking any chances with Bolt Brains. Matchstick wouldn't dare touch what's mine, but the other idiot is likely to have a death wish and I'd really rather not bloody my hands unless it's necessary."

Hellia smiled as she nodded against Cobra's chest, she understood that he didn't want her being bestowed a gift by the other slayers and was trying to keep that from happening. It was the only reason she didn't argue with him, well, that and the fact that the little voice told her that he was to be obeyed in this matter, that other little voice in her head telling her that there was something important that would be happening on this job with her soon-to-be mate.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N;** _I had some time to write this chapter before bed, so, here you go! As always, thank you so much to **animegirl549** and **Missy 63** , your comments drive me to keep at this story! I'm introducing another OC here that will be leading into a second story once this one wraps up in about... 8 more chapters, maybe? or, I can make it a tag-a-long series {which it will probably be somewhat a tag-a-long anyways to get the full gist of what is happening with this other OC}. I'd love to hear opinions on this and I hope you all like Bijou Sinclair, one of my first OC's that I've had since I was like... Ten? So, about twelve years, now!_

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 ** _Word Count:_** _4,217_

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The train station was very barren and lifeless as Hellia stepped off of the train with Cobra following closely behind her. She cast a quick glance around, taking in the vacant building with an ever-encroaching sense of dread at the lack of people around. Glancing at Cobra, she realized that this was not expected and that feeling of dread grew within herself as they walked out of the station and onto the streets of Jade City, the home of Fiore's largest mines that produced the gemstone for it's namesake.

The town was oddly beautiful, boasting stone structures of deep gray stone that seemed to sparkle with gems that had been left within the polished slabs and created a unique look within the town. Above each door that they passed were different stones of alternating colors- blue then green followed by purple on one building, yellow then pink followed by black on another, the list went on and on. It didn't take long for Hellia to realize that the patterns had different meanings, signifying buildings as either residential or as a place for business when she saw the signs posted outside of a large building that was likely the townhall with it's two blue and one white gems above the doorway.

Hellia calmly followed Cobra, though her stomach twisted at the utter lack of life within the town, that little voice in her head telling her that something was severely wrong when she saw that the little playground was devoid of even children and shutters were closed tightly on windows of homes that they passed by. She felt Cobra squeeze her hand reassuringly, telling her that he wouldn't let anything happen to her and that calmed the woman considerably as they stepped into the townhall so that they could speak to the mayor about their job.

The hall was equally as silent as the town, though there was a large woman with beady black eyes behind a desk, her aging face set into a frown as she wrote in a book before herself. Hair that was likely beautiful at one point was white as snow and pulled into a tight bun at the base of her neck, giving her an almost militaristic appearance as she hunched over the desk. Her shrewd eyes looked up at the two mages as they approached, obvious distaste showing on her features when her eyes raked over their clasped hands.

"What do you want?" She asked as she snapped the book before her shut and sat up straighter in her chair.

Hellia squeezed Cobra's hand, hoping to stop him from snapping back at the woman when she realized his own temper was likely to flare at her tone of voice. It wouldn't bode well for them, or the guild, if he were to get on this town's bad side, especially because they'd been called in to help with whatever was going on. Not to mention the fact that she really didn't want him getting blood all over her brand new clothing.

That thought seemed to relax him as Cobra sent her a sideways smirk before he approached the desk and put down the job request- Hellia chose to ignore the fact that it made a loud smacking sound as he did so. "We're from Fairy Tail," Cobra said matter-of-factly. "Came to help."

The shrewd woman looked over the flyer quickly before standing up to her full height, her nose ending up level with the top of Cobra's head and forcing him to look up slightly to maintain eye contact with her. "Follow me, I suppose," She said with an exasperated edge to her voice as she moved around the desk and led the two down a hall towards a large pair of double doors where she knocked once before shoving them open.

"Carnelian," A man's voice said as the doors opened. "I told you not to-" The voice cut off as a stocky man with what Hellia could only compare to treasure hunter's clothing made an appearance sitting behind a huge oaken desk. He smiled broadly at the pair of mages and waved off the militaristic woman who simply walked away with no other words spared to the Fairy Tail mages. "Come, come," The man, whom Hellia assumed to be the mayor, said, ushering them over to sit before his desk. "I'm Mayor Greenly. You must be from Fairy Tail, yes?"

"We are," Hellia replied softly, hoping she wasn't stepping out of line by speaking up. When Cobra made no move to say anything further, she took the chance to speak, trying her best to be as professional as she could be, though her stomach was in knots at actually being on her first real job in all her years as a guild mage. "Can you tell us why you requested us?"

The mayor's face dropped slightly and he appeared several years older than the forty that Hellia guessed him to be, sorrow shining in his ice blue eyes. "Yes, well," He began. "We've had some trouble with some dark mages, they've been roughing up some of our workers in the mines. As the leading export here being our gemstones, many of which can't be found anywhere else on the continent, we rely on the mines to bring us our money."

Hellia nodded, this all made sense, though something else was bothering her. "Why aren't there any people outside of their homes?" She asked, trying to gain all information she could before she was inevitably hushed by Cobra. "There aren't even children in the park."

"There was an… incident a few days ago," The mayor continued, his face darkening more at the mention of whatever had happened. "One of the shops, our jeweler's shop, to be exact, was attacked. The whole family, bar their eldest daughter, was killed in the attack. None of the townsfolk have wanted to leave their homes since and Bijou has disappeared, leaving behind no trace of her. It's a shame as she would have bore strong men to work the mines."

"Bijou is the survivor?"

The mayor nodded, "She's a beautiful girl, though quiet as a breeze. I fear these men may have taken her, though what they would want with the girl is beyond me, it would have been more likely to want her father or younger brother. Strong backs on those ones."

Hellia frowned, not liking how the man was talking about this unknown girl and her family. It almost seemed like this Bijou had been kidnapped if her whole family had been murdered and she was now missing, so why was the mayor so callous about her disappearing? It didn't make any sense to her that he didn't seem to find her worth anything to even dark mages. What were they missing?

"Where were these mages last seen?" Cobra questioned, his voice tight and making Hellia raise a brow at him.

"Last I'd heard, they were in the east mines," The man stood and walked over to a wall that held a map of the entire town, pointing at a small black dot to the east that seemed to be a mile or so away from the residential and business buildings. "The old home of the Sinclair's is on the same path and was actually where the workers would leave their stones to be polished, any special pieces placed into jewelry made by Old Man Sinclair. The man was a wonder with his forges and could make the most beautiful pieces. It's hard to believe that his business won't be bringing any more folk around here."

Cobra abruptly stood, apparently having heard enough from the mayor about the job. "We'll be back before tomorrow evening for our reward," He said before walking off, leaving Hellia to rush after him as he stalked out of the townhall and to the path that would lead them east.

"What's wrong?" Hellia questioned softly, hoping to coax the information out of the slayer who seemed highly irritated. "Did I do something wrong? It's my first job an-"

"That guy's a dick," He replied, cutting off her words quickly. "In his head, he was only thinking about how those people dying would hurt the town's economy, not the fact that they were murdered and their oldest daughter is missing and possibly being held by some fucking assholes who want to do Gods-knows-what with her. The idiot isn't worried about that or anything else other than how there won't be tourists here to line his fucking pockets and it makes me sick."

Hellia frowned, that's what she'd been missing in the conversation with the mayor- he'd had no sense of true sincerity in his tone. She'd known there was something off about him from the moment they'd walked into the office, but now that she thought about it, he'd seemed much more worried about the mines being shut down and the jeweler's business no longer being open than the people who were now dead and the missing girl.

The idea of it angered Hellia, making her want to turn around so she could slap the man in the face as it brought back memories of being nothing more than an object to be used by her old guild. It had now been about two weeks since she'd been kicked out of Griffin's Claws and had joined Fairy Tail, but the memories of the dark days before her were quickly fading away with every new job that Mira had sent her and Cobra's way.

They'd taken a lacrama, their bag, and nothing more before they'd left town and Hellia had been having the time of her life. The first two "jobs" had really been nothing more than the kind she'd been used to in the past, transporting packages and assisting in rebuilding of a horse stable that had been destroyed in a recent storm, they'd even had time to relax in some hot springs where she'd worn that annoying green bikini- to Cobra's vocal delight. It hadn't been until this one that she'd felt true excitement, though that excitement had been tampered down the moment she'd stepped foot off of the train and been swamped with this sense of dread. Now that she knew the cause, Hellia wasn't sure she was ready for something like this.

Sure, she'd trained daily with Cobra, waking up extremely early so that they could spar and practice at trying to get her magic to work with her in a more tangible way than it had before, but that didn't compare to the possibility of an actual fight, and she was certain there _would_ be a fight if dark mages were involved. She was still unsure of herself in a fight and her magic could still be a bit outside-of-the-box on some occasions, giving her questionable objects to work with and making her scream in frustration before Cobra gave her a distraction that left her unable to think. It was invigorating and confusing all the time, though she shouldn't be thinking about that right now, they had an actual fight to handle and she needed to keep her head in the game so that she could rub their victory in the face of that money-hungry dirt bag of a mayor.

"Loops," Cobra laughed out with a shake of his head. "Gods, your mind is a beautiful thing."

Hellia smiled slightly at this before she gasped in horror at seeing a beautiful stone building razed to the ground. There were obvious pieces of furniture that had been destroyed, toys and jewelry tossed around and ruined on the ground, char marks from some sort of fire on the bits of grass that had sprung up in the stone that covered the mountainous pathways that made up the outskirts of Jade City. A painted picture of a sunset was torn down the middle, though the mountains in the distance showed it was painted from a scene nearby. It was heartbreaking to see and Hellia felt tears prick her eyes as she bent down to pick up a beautiful golden bird in flight with obvious places for gemstones to be set into it's eyes and places on the wings. She brushed her fingertips over the gold as the first tears fell and turned her face into Cobra's chest as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Who would do such a thing?" Hellia rasped out, unable to hide her turmoil at seeing such destruction.

"Not mages," Cobra said lowly, his hand stroking the long raven hair of the woman in his arms. "I don't smell any magic. This had to have been done by bandits of some kind, though they left a lot of the valuable stuff behind."

"Not mages," She repeated through hitched breaths. "Then, why…"

"We're going to find out," He replied, cupping Hellia's cheeks and lowering his lips to hers. "Get it together, mi alma, we've got a job to do. Don't let your emotions get the better of you right now, hold it in until the fight."

Hellia wiped away her tears with a solemn nod, her gaze hardening as she looked down at the bird in her hands. "Those fuckers will pay for this," She said before looking back up at Cobra with a newfound determination in her mismatched eyes.

The slayer grinned, kissing her forehead briskly, "That's my girl. Let's get a move-on."

They walked another half-mile down the path, turning several corners on the pass before they reached a fork close to the top of the mountain. There were two directions as the pathway split, one path leading up to the very top of the mountain, and the other into a dark cave that was marked by three red gems embedded into a pale blue archway. There was evidence of people working in the area as there were minecarts, buckets, picks, and other materials nearby, the carts all seeming to be tipped over and gems littering the ground to sparkle in the fading sunlight.

"They're definitely inside," Cobra confirmed as he gave a long inhale. "We need a plan to lure them out so that my magic doesn't make the mines unusable to the workers for the next few weeks."

And so, that was how Hellia was left out in the open, limping up to the entrance of the mines with her clothing torn to pieces and exposing quite a lot of her skin. Cobra was waiting nearby and out of sight, ready for the moment that he would jump out to surprise the people who were terrorizing the town. Hellia took a deep breath before she fell to the ground in a heap, letting out a blood-curdling scream as she did so and clutching at the leg she'd cut with a sharp rock to make it appear she'd been attacked.

On cue, four large men came out of the mines, all looking around quickly before they zeroed in on the wounded woman. They made their way over to her, one crouching down to check on the half-Pixie while the others looked on for whatever had seemed to attack her. She looked up at the man with tear-filled eyes, the blood on her face making her look more like the damsel-in-distress she'd convinced Cobra would get the men to come out and investigate.

"My, little lady," The man who had crouched to check on her gave a low whistle and his eyes raked over Hellia's body, making her shiver in disgust, though she hoped it appeared more like she was cold. "You've gotten yourself into quite the situation."

"There was a terrible beast," Hellia whimpered, her eyes glancing around as if searching for the creature that had attacked her and she nearly broke character when Cobra quickly took out one of the men who had come near his hiding spot.

"What did this beast look like?" The man asked, raising a brow as his hand reached out to brush down her arm.

"It was big," She continued, shaking again and hoping that this would be over soon as she caught Cobra taking another of the men out and dragging the unconscious body behind some rocks. "With maroon hair, and violet eyes! It had arms that turned to scales and poison that could make one spill their darkest secrets!"

"What kind of beast was it?"

"It was-" She cut off when Cobra's shadow fell across the man who was now running his down her collarbone, about to dip between Hellia's cleavage. "It was him," She finished with a broad smile that matched Cobra's when the man turned wide eyes onto the slayer, who had turned his arms to his Dragon Force for added effect.

"Now," Cobra said with a dark chuckle, grabbing the man by his wrist and yanking him away from Hellia quickly to slam into the side of the mountain. "Tell the big, bad beasty why you killed that family, and why you think it's okay to touch what belongs to me."

The man grunted as he was dragged up by the hair, his gaze being pulled level with that of the slayer who was now snarling in his face. "W-We were paid to do it," He stuttered out, shaking like a leaf.

"By whom?" Hellia questioned as she stood up and straightened her clothing before walking over to stand beside Cobra to glare at the idiot.

"I-I can't tell you!" He screamed in pain as a clawed finger was jammed into his ribs, the smell of sizzling flesh quickly filling the air. "Please! I- Ahh!"

"You might want to tell him," The half-Pixie said lowly, leaning in a bit towards the man. "He's an impatient bastard and you touched me, that makes him testier than usual. I'm not sure I can stop him from doing what he wants to you unless you give us a name."

"I- Ahh!" He screamed again as Cobra dug his claw into the side of his neck and threatened to slice open his jugular. "It was Mayor Greenly!"

"The mayor," Hellia repeated as Cobra got in closer to the bandit's face.

"Why would the mayor want the Sinclair family dead?" The slayer snarled in a menacing tone. "I thought they brought a lot of money into the town."

"H-he wanted B-Bijou," Came the raspy reply. "Greenly wanted Sinclair to give her to him in marriage, Sinclair d-declined the o-offer, said that the girl was going to marry out of l-love. Mayor didn't like that so h-hired some of us from the mines to take the girl by f-force, told us to kill the family if it came to it. When we got there, the girl was gone, so we k-killed the family."

"And then Greenly hired us to get rid of the witnesses," Cobra surmised, dropping the man to the ground when he'd passed out from the pain and turned to Hellia.

The raven haired woman frowned, looking around at everything. "So, where is Bijou?" She wondered, trying to figure out where the girl had gone. Her eyes skimmed the area again before locking onto the fork in the pathway as she automatically began walking in that direction.

"Mi alma?" Cobra questioned, taking long strides to catch up to the quickly moving woman.

"Where would you go if everything around you was falling apart?" Hellia asked as she ran up the mountain, her voice brisk as she was caught by the slayer who prevented her from falling off the edge of the cliffside.

"Somewhere familiar?"

"Exactly," She said, almost giddy. "There was a picture at the Sinclair's house, a mountainscape with the sunset in the distance. I recognized the scene when I looked this way. If I'm right, she's here, Cobra, Bijou is on top of the mountain. She was under their noses the whole time!"

When she stumbled again, the slayer simply stooped down to scoop her up into his arms, picking his way up the mountain quickly until they'd made it to the top where a small cabin sat. Hellia was placed back onto her feet, her eyes scanning the area as she made her way to the door of the cabin and she knocked loudly.

"Bijou?" She shouted, knocking again. "Bijou, we're mages from Fairy Tail. We know what happened to your family. Please, open the door, we want to help."

"Babe, you might want to come this way," Cobra's voice shouted, capturing the half-Pixie's attention as he made his way around the cabin.

Hellia was quick to follow, seeing a setup of an easel and paints nearby as she rounded the building atop the mountain, a canvas drying on the wooden easel with an image that had her heart racing. At the top of the mountain was the image of a girl in a flowing dress, her arms spread wide as she seemed like she was about to jump. It was obvious what the image was saying and Hellia felt her heart hammer in her chest as she urgently scanned the area.

Mismatched eyes locked onto the figure a ways off, a girl with a dress in flowing blue that matched that of the figure in the painting. She was standing on the edge of the cliff, arms wrapped around herself as she gazed out towards the sunset. A flash of green burst over the horizon a moment before the figure spread her arms out to the sides, creating an image identical to that made of oils.

"Bijou!" Hellia shouted as she ran, her voice screaming in terror as she leapt towards the edge when she saw the woman with shaggy lavender hair lean forward and tumble over the edge of the cliff.

She gasped in relief the moment she was pulled back onto solid ground and was immediately wrapped in strong arms, her heart hammering in her chest. She shoved Cobra off of her, ignoring his growls of protest as she moved over to where the lavender haired woman was curled into a ball, shoulders shaking as she sobbed. That was her first priority, making sure that the woman she'd just saved was alright, Cobra could wait to fret over her until she'd made sure of the other woman first.

"Bijou?" Hellia pressed softly, touching a hand to the sobbing woman's shoulder in a gentle motion. "Why would you…" She didn't know how to finish the question, didn't know if she really wanted to know the answer to it.

The woman's head rose and Hellia was met with a pale pink gaze that screamed of pain and inner-turmoil, despair clouding high cheekbones and slender limbs. Bijou was what one would think of when they imagined an elf with her slim build and prominent features, her every notable feature adding to her beauty from the smattering of freckles across her nose to the feathery lavender hair. Even with her eyes being red-rimmed and puffy from crying, she was gorgeous and had Hellia slightly jealous of the wonderful carnation shade of her iris.

"They're gone," Bijou said quietly, her head turning as she looked out at the fading rays of sunlight in the distance.

"We found the ones who did it," Hellia assured, hoping that the news would bring some form of solace to the emotionally destroyed woman. "And we're going to take care of the man who paid them to do it."

This caused pink eyes to dart back to the raven haired woman as confusion filled Bijou's features. "Paid?"

"Yes," She replied, with a solemn nod and a frown. "It seems that Mayor Greenly didn't like the fact your father declined his marriage offer for you."

"It's my fault," Bijou whispered, her tone once again full of despair as fresh tears formed in her eyes.

Hellia shook her head quickly, taking the other woman's hands in her own as she attempted to help soothe her in any way she knew how to. "It's not," She urged, though she knew that Bijou wouldn't believe that. "It's Greenly's fault for not taking 'no' for an answer. We have more than enough to turn him over to the Rune Knights. You can move on with your life knowing that the men all involved in the murder of your family are never going to see the light of day again."

"I have no life," Bijou said, eyes once again looking out over the mountain range that was graying into darkness. "They're all gone."

This made the Luck Mage chew her lip as she looked over at Cobra, a plan forming in her head. If Fairy Tail had helped her then… "Come join our guild," Cobra said quickly, bringing attention to him as the purplette gawked at him. "Even if you don't have magic, you can work the bar with the others. You won't need to stay here and you can make a new life."

"But-"

Hellia turned back to Bijou with a smile, pulling the bird from her pocket and placing it into the woman's hands gently. "Fairy Tail mages help people," She assured easily. "It's kind of their thing. Come with us and we'll help you."

Bijou clutched the bird in her hands before holding it against her chest protectively. She pressed her lips together a moment before giving a shaky smile, nodding a bit. "Okay."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N;** _I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while! It's been hectic in my house with Summer coming and lots of things going on in my life as well as a review that had me losing hope in this story. I want to make it clear that at this point, Hellia and Cobra have known each other for about 3 weeks, meaning that they've had time to get to bond a bit. With the whole magic thing being involved, obviously their relationship will be moving much faster than a usual one would and that's simply how I write these kinds of stories. If you don't like how domineering Cobra is, I would suggest not reading... well, anything with him in it, honestly. He's a domineering man and having a woman who can tread as lightly around him as Hellia does would be the balance that he needs {as seen at the end of this chapter}. Don't like how I write? Don't read my stories, because I'm really not going to change it and I couldn't care less if bad reviewers want to make me feel as though I'm bad at what I do._

 _Sorry for the rant, I'm a bit moody about those details. Anyways! I have a spin-off started for Bijou and will be posting the first chapter by the end of the week. I also have another OC who will be making an appearance soon and, again, another spin-off dedicated to her. If we have three slayers without mates, we need three women who will fill that spot, no?_

 _Enjoy the chapter, dearies!_

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 _ **Word Count:** 2,986_

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It took a bit before Hellia convinced Bijou to go into the cabin so that she could shower and put on fresh clothing, leaving Cobra to go back to the mines and make sure that the men who'd been involved with the murders were still unconscious. The raven haired woman made tea in the small kitchenette while she waited for Bijou to finish, frowning over the idea that this woman would take a very long time to cope with the loss of her family. If there was anything Hellia knew about the guild she'd been a part of for the last two and a half weeks, it was that they were a great family full of boisterous energy and worked hard to keep every person within the guild happy- even if she herself hadn't had much time around the guild as she and Cobra had been traveling and he was determined to keep her away from the other male slayers.

Hellia sighed, thinking about how she wanted to get to know the other members of the guild, though she knew that it wasn't likely to happen until she'd been fully mated to the domineering man whom she had extremely deep feelings for. She'd decided that asking him questions about his past was not a great idea, even though she _had_ found out that he'd been born in the Tower just as she had been, except a few years before. He was twenty-five and would have been five years old when Hellia had been born, his birthday somewhere near Christmas which Lucy had supposedly begun celebrating his birthday exactly one week prior to the holiday.

She didn't know her own birthday exactly, only that it was sometime near the summer solstice, a time when the sun was closest to Earthland and had given her magic the link to the light that it had wound up with. When Cobra had asked if she would be comfortable with Lucy determining her birthday the way the blonde had done for him, Hellia had been quick to agree, knowing that Lucy wouldn't let her not celebrate it as the woman seemed to be more stubborn than the Poison Dragon Slayer was- and that was really saying something because Cobra could be a pain in the ass when he wanted to be.

The small woman took the steaming kettle off of the stove, pouring it into a pair of cups that had tea bags already placed into them. She moved the tray into the small sitting area where she sat down to wait for the other woman, casting her eyes around the room to take in the many paintings that were everywhere- stacked against the table, hanging on walls, piled on the floor. It seemed that art was Bijou's outlet the way that reading was Hellia's, though Bijou's was arguably more useful, in the long run.

The purplette walked into the room wearing a pair of gray sweat pants and a white tank top that were both splattered with paint. Her shaggy lavender hair was damp, but pulled back into a stubby ponytail at the base of her neck with stray hairs joining the thick bangs that hooded over her eyes. Even with the hollow cheeks and dark circles, she was beautiful in a way that had Hellia's jealousy budding back to life at how she could look so much like the stunning artist even at what was likely the lowest point in her life.

"I made some tea," Hellia offered, smiling at the woman as she seemed to hesitate before sitting on one of the worn chairs.

Bijou accepted the tea, adding nothing to it as she sipped lightly and kept her eyes glued to the ground as if she were unsure how to deal with the situation. It didn't bother Hellia that she was silent, the shorter woman simply wanting to offer some form of comfort to the other and knew that she simply needed time before she would be comfortable around her. Hellia knew that she herself had been withdrawn after losing her mother in a gruesome way, sympathizing with the other woman because she'd felt it was her fault that the woman had died the way that Bijou felt her family's demise was her own fault.

They sat in silence for a short while until the cabin's door opened to reveal Cobra entering with the bag that they shared slung over his shoulder. "Rune Knights are questioning the fuckers," He said as he tossed down the bag and flopped onto the couch with his head in Hellia's lap. "We'll be going to assist in the arrest tomorrow and collecting the reward from the sick fuck before the Knights get there. I didn't do all that damn work without getting paid."

"Did you call the guild?" Hellia asked as she ran her fingers through the slayer's thick hair- a habit she'd picked up that he didn't seem to ever mind her doing as they spoke to each other.

"Demon's open to help at the bar with Kina," Cobra replied, his gaze flickering over to the purplette who would be returning to the guild with them when all was said and done. "You'll be staying with the future guildmaster and his woman til you get on your feet."

"Not you two?" Bijou asked so quietly that Hellia wasn't certain she'd heard her speak until Cobra snorted.

"We're not hanging around those idiots for long," The slayer said, closing his eyes as Hellia continued running her fingers through his hair.

"What he means is that we're busy taking jobs to stay out and about due to some… particular circumstances," Hellia revised, tapping the man on the forehead with her finger to get him to stop being an ass to the shy woman. The tactic didn't work in the slightest when she saw a smirk tug at his lips and she subconsciously licked her own as she imagined the heated kiss they'd shared the night prior on the beach before his lacrama had pinged telling them that there was another job that Mira had found for them.

Hellia shook the thoughts away, this was no time to be thinking about _that_ when there was an emotional woman not five feet from where they were. The man was turning her into some kind of deviant and she wasn't sure she liked that idea, as tantalizing as it all was. She refocused on the frowning face of Bijou and tapped her fingers lightly on Cobra's temple, silently telling him that the situation was a bit more sensitive. He wouldn't allow the woman's thoughts to dictate how he treated her, but Hellia knew that she was his soft spot and he wouldn't do anything to upset her- for the most part.

"Bright Eyes is cool," Cobra muttered opening his eyes again as he seemed to frown about something. "And she keeps her idiot in line. You'll be fine with them."

Bijou said nothing, her gaze locked onto the cup of tea in her hands as the trio lapsed into silence once more. There was something about this woman that seemed oddly familiar to Hellia and she couldn't quite place what it was that was nagging at the back of her mind. She was very perceptive- having spent a lot of time feeling like an outsider looking in on every social encounter she'd ever had until she'd met Cobra- but there was no way for her to tell why this woman had a familiarity about her. She'd have to think more on it, she supposed.

"You should try to get some rest," Hellia offered to the obviously exhausted woman. "We're going to be busy tomorrow."

The purplette nodded ever-so-slightly before standing up and placing the half-empty cup onto the tray that Hellia had used for the tea. She looked around a moment, seeming to think about something before looking back towards the two Fairy Tail mages. Her frown and the quick wary glance towards the cabin door spoke volumes which had Hellia nudging Cobra's head off of her lap so she could stand as well.

"It'll be alright," She promised, putting her hands onto the taller woman's shoulders and giving her the most sincere of smiles. "We're going to make sure those dirt bags pay for what they've done and you can work on putting yourself back together. I'll only be a shout away, Cobra will hear no matter how quiet and he'll let me know so I can come help you, okay?"

A look that seemed almost relieved flickered over Bijou's face before she moved away from the raven haired woman and walked down the hall. A gentle click was heard as the door was shut and Hellia let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding when she felt Cobra's arms wrap around her from behind, his lips brushing against her exposed shoulder.

* * *

When it came time to leave the cabin the next morning, Hellia watched Bijou carefully. It wasn't because she didn't believe the woman had a handle on her emotions, it was just a highly touchy situation and because Hellia didn't know how Bijou would react to seeing the man who had been the main player in the deaths of her family once again. The woman was a wildcard and one that Hellia wasn't sure she should allow to come too close to Mayor Greenly.

It wasn't until the trio had made their way to the town hall with a group of Rune Knights waiting for them that Hellia realized that the purplette was a lot more docile than she'd given her credit for. Bijou looked around, slightly panicked and as though she would bolt at any moment, making Hellia reach out and touch her arm reassuringly.

"It's okay," She soothed, hoping to calm the frantic woman. "He can't hurt you, he'd have to go through the Knights, not to mention Cobra and I. You're safe, Bijou." She used the woman's name, knowing that it would reach her a bit better than simply leaving it out.

Her words seemed to bring the desired effect as the lavender haired woman took several deep breaths and nodded, a newfound determination in her eyes. Hellia smiled back before she turned to Cobra who simply smirked at her. "Let's get this fucker," He ordered of the Knights, leading the small group into the town hall.

The giantess who ran the front desk stood up abruptly at the disturbance, her shrewd eyes going wide when none of those who had entered stopped on their way to the Mayor's office. She reached out to grab Cobra's arm as he attempted to shove the door open, "Don-"

Hellia gasped in shock after she'd moved past the two to open the door, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as she took an involuntary step back at the scene she was greeted with. She felt as though she was going to be violently ill, about to turn to try and push Bijou back as well. Her mind went blank, though, stopping her from even turning away from the despicable horror she was witnessing.

"You sick fuck," Cobra sneered, shaking off the tall woman as he charged into the room and ripped the shocked Greenly away from the young girl who had been on her knees before him. The maroon haired slayer had the mayor pinned to the wall by the throat, loud growls filling the room.

The Luck Mage snapped out of her state of shock, rushing over to crouch down beside the sobbing young girl who was gagging and coughing, drool leaking from the corner of her mouth. She didn't fight off the older woman when she wrapped her arms around her, helping her to her feet and sending a seething look at the man who had reduced the spirited young girl to this sorry state.

"Sir," One of the Knights began, cutting off when Hellia turned her burning gaze onto him. He gulped, standing up a little straighter in his place. "We need him to-"

"If you touch him, you're likely to die," Hellia informed the man, halting the other two Rune Knights as they reached out to do just that.

"Amethyst," Bijou breathed, reaching out for the young blonde who was in Hellia's arms. The girl seemed to be brought to her senses slightly by the sound of the woman's voice and let out a choking sob as she threw herself into Bijou's arms. "Shh," She soothed as she pet the girl's hair. "It's okay, we're here now." She looked up, a frown on her face when she looked at Hellia. "She lives just across the street."

"You," Hellia pointed to the Knight who had been speaking to her. "Go get her parents, tell them nothing. You two," She gestured to the two remaining Knights. "Detain that stupid bitch who let this happen. I'll handle-" She cut off at the sound of a squelching sound followed by a scream. "Him."

She didn't have to look to know that Cobra had done something particularly nasty to the now-sobbing Greenly, the faces of those in the room were all she needed. When they'd cleared out, she turned and saw that Cobra had cut off a particular piece of the man's anatomy and was apparently working on forcing it down his throat. Swallowing the bile in her throat, Hellia walked over and put a hand onto the slayer's arm, drawing his crazed gaze to her own.

"We need him alive," She spoke quietly, unsure of how Cobra would react to her ordering him around. There was a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt flesh reached her nose, making Hellia choke back more bile as she kept her gaze level with that of her slayer. "Let him go."

"He hasn't paid enough," Cobra responded. "Not after what he did. He needs to hurt more. He can't hurt anyone like that again."

Hellia caught onto the fact that Cobra was no longer seeming to be speaking about Greenly as she placed her hand on his cheek, stopping him from looking back at the man who was still grasped by one clawed hand around his throat. Her heart broke when she saw the pain in that single indigo eye, finally understanding that this man was hurt much worse by some events in his life than he ever let on to anyone. Someone had likely hurt him in this way- or worse- when he was younger and Hellia was torn between letting him purge this inner demon right there and stopping him because they needed the man alive.

She let out a sigh, knowing that it wouldn't be let go by the Magic Council if Cobra murdered the man that was already going to be taken into custody. "Let him go," She repeated as her thumb stroked the slayer's mocha cheek. "We need to take care of the girl."

Cobra looked torn before he finally let the man go, letting Greenly slump to the floor and cough up the piece of his own flesh as his hands grasped painfully between his legs. The maroon haired man narrowed his eye as he gave a rough kick to Greenly's stomach, smirking at the whimper that left his lips. "You're fucking lucky I won't go against my mate, fucker," He sneered, letting Hellia pull him away long enough for the Knights to come in and begin the procedure of detaining the mayor.

Hellia let out a breath when she saw two people holding onto Amethyst, the three of them having a tear-filled reunion. She hadn't realized that her day would be quite as eventful of that, though what she was expecting was something she didn't really know. Maybe she figured they would walk into the office, arrest Greenly, allow Bijou to give her statement to the Rune Knights, and then they would be on their way back to Magnolia. She laughed humorlessly at herself, shaking her head at her own thoughts. It was never that easy, honestly, especially with a man like Cobra around.

Her thoughts went to the pain she had seen in his eye, that haunted look that made her realize that someone had done something like what had been done to Amethyst to him when he'd been young. It made her stomach roll when she thought about that, thought about the man who was so strong in both will and physical strength being reduced to nothing but a plaything. It made her heart ache for the young boy he'd once been, made her want to hold onto the man he now was and never let him go.

Hellia knew that neither of those options would be welcomed, instead wrapping an arm around Cobra's waist and leaned her head onto his shoulder as they waited for both Bijou and Amethyst to give their statements to the Knights. This, she could do. She could give Cobra the sensitivity that he needed while still not looking at him any differently than she had before she'd known this horrific detail about his past. It would do more for him if she were to do that, would keep that trust that they'd been working on as a new couple over the past couple of weeks if she were to simply allow him to know she was there if he chose to talk about it and wouldn't be going anywhere if he didn't.

The gentle squeeze to her shoulder told Hellia that Cobra had heard that thought and she smiled, happy that he was grateful to her for the support she would give him. For now, they needed to focus on their trip back to the town they'd been avoiding for two weeks in hopes of keeping her away from the other two slayers and any temptation that they might provoke within the fated slayer mate.


End file.
